Lost
by ashenbisexual
Summary: Tawny knows she's special, with abilities and strength even beyond the genius Dr. Halsey's understanding. When she finds the root of her powers, and a dormant evil beginning to awaken, she must quickly realize what it means to be strong. (Image isn't mine) (Second book in the Chipped series)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Everything was...fuzzy. Surreal. I didn't have a care in the world, but I felt like I should have.

I opened my eyes.

I was in the medbay of the _Pillar of Autumn_. I'd just had surgery to remove the tracking chip that the Covenant had placed in my ribs.

That explained why they hurt so badly.

I tried to sit up, wincing as the cut over my ribs twinged.

"You should remain still, mademoiselle." Anton, the shipboard AI, spoke through the intercom system.

I nodded. "I...I think I'll do that."

My thoughts were sluggishly racing. There was something important, but I couldn't remember what.

"A-Anton, what's happening? Something big."

"You just went through surgery, Ms. Clark. The chip was rather difficult to remove without injuring you. I suggest you remain calm."

That didn't bode well.

"Just tell me what's going on. I can't...I can't remember." There was a low buzzing in the back of my head.

It had been there, though, since we were on Installation 04. When I touched the Domain. Whatever that was.

"We are currently engaging a Covenant fleet, to keep them from the surface of Reach." Anton sounded somewhat reluctant to tell me.

"Oh, that." I nodded lazily. "I forgot, how did I forget about that?"

He didn't answer.

My eyes widened. "Oh, my god! Where's Blue Team?!"

"They are still on the _Pillar of Autumn_, mademoiselle. In fact, Petty Officer First Class 087 is headed this way as we speak."

"Kelly." I smiled.

She walked in less than a minute later. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Good." I grinned loopily up at her. "How about you?"

Anton spoke up. "She is still under the effects of anesthesia. I request that she remain lying down."

Kelly knelt beside the bed. "How'd the surgery go?"

"Good." I was so _happy_. I really liked Kelly.

"There was a minor complication, and as a result she was almost frozen in cryo to be sent to the surface with Petty Officer First Class 058."

Kelly looked up at the speaker. "What happened?"

"The chip was implanted just behind a major blood vessel, and it was nearly punctured."

I frowned. "The buzzing is getting louder."

"It's the anesthesia, mademoiselle."

"No," I shook my head, "it's been there. But it's getting annoying now."

"Been there? Since when?" Kelly pulled her helmet off.

"Since...the ring world. The one I destroyed."

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Do you know what it is?"

I nodded. "It's the Domain. It wants to tell me something, but it won't."

She was silent.

"It wants me to guess."

Kelly looked up again. "Anton, call the others in here."

"At once, Petty Officer."

I closed my eyes. "My chest hurts."

"It will." Kelly tried to sound sympathetic.

I mumbled, "I don't like it."

John walked in first, followed by Fred.

A massive smile overtook my face. "John."

Then my heart fell.

"You're still mad at me."

Kelly stood. "Tell them about the Domain."

"Oh." I thought for a minute, taking a deep breath. "The Domain. It's annoying."

"You said it wanted to tell you something," Kelly prodded.

I nodded. "A warning. It won't tell me what; it's so annoying."

"'Warning'?" Fred turned to the others. "That doesn't sound good."

"I tried to find out, but it keeps slipping away from me. It just keeps buzzing," I complained.

Blue Team, minus Linda - she'd been injured on the ring world, and was awaiting medical treatment on the surface - started talking about what to do with the little information that they had.

Something churned in my gut.

I leaned over, on the other side of the bed from Blue Team, and threw up on the floor.

My hand came up to wipe my mouth as I grimaced. "That sucked."

"A negative effect of the anesthesia, mademoiselle," Anton assured me. "I will call for a medic."

I laid back down, closing my eyes as Blue Team kept talking. Their anxiety was putting me on edge.

I wanted to help them.

I closed my eyes, delving into the buzzing of the Domain. It danced away from me, just on the edges of my mind. Just too slippery to catch, but not too slippery to taunt you.

A medic walked in, pressing his hand to my forehead. "Ms. Clark. You had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. Are you feeling alright?"

I nodded. "Yep. The Domain won't let me talk to it."

He took that in stride. "I'm very sorry, ma'am."

He moved to get some cleaning supplies while I returned to my hunt. I had to catch the Domain.

I eventually pinned it down. It was very small, compared to the echo of what it once was. That wasn't to say it wasn't impressive. It spanned the galaxy, a low hum that knew everything. It saw everything.

I poked it. "_What's wrong?"_

It didn't respond, just sent me the same sense of foreboding.

"_Come on, what's wrong? Tell me."_

It didn't tell me.

Maybe it couldn't.

I groaned, letting it go. It was a puzzle, and I had to solve it to get answers.

"Anton, how long until I can think again?" I asked.

"The anesthesia should wear off within thirty minutes to an hour, mademoiselle."

I pursed my lips. "Okay. I can figure out the Domain in thirty minutes to an hour, then."

"Are you sure?" John stood beside my bed.

I nodded. "It wants me to figure it out. Don't worry, I'm sure everything's alright."

He felt doubtful about that. He was on edge. The Covenant was attacking his home, after all.

All that was left to do was wait.

It felt like forever.

Finally, my thoughts started clearing up.

I sat myself up, ignoring Anton's objections, and leaned against the wall. My ribs hurt, but I didn't say anything out loud.

"Okay, let's try this again." I took a breath.

I closed my eyes and reached out to the Domain. It slid away again, like a school of fish brushing past you without you ever being able to catch one. It touched you, but you never touched it.

But it wasn't a school of fish.

I pinned it again.

It didn't want to talk to me. It wanted...It needed me to enter it. It was a Domain, after all.

I was pulled down into a...a hallway? It was a hallway of sorts. A long, huge, ethereal hallway.

I looked up, but I couldn't see the roof.

There were evenly spaced arch doorways on both sides of the hall, but I knew that the one I wanted was right next to me. I turned right, into it, and saw a big city. I was in the room, I could look back and see the hallway, but within the room it didn't actually seem to be there. There was only the city.

Right, the city.

I knew its name, without even trying.

New Alexandria. The capital city of Reach.

As I watched, the Covenant ships lowered slowly, ominously, into the atmosphere. Great beams erupted from beneath them, and the surface of the planet turned to glass.

My eyes widened fractionally. The Covenant was going to glass Reach.

I moved to walk back out into the hallway; I had to figure out how to stop that from happening.

A sense of desperation filled me when I realized that I didn't know how to get out.

"_Who are you, human?"_

I jumped, looking around. A negative presence echoed through the halls, though I couldn't ascertain where it was.

"_How have you entered the Domain?"_

I shrunk against the wall.

"_You are not worthy!"_

A sense of impending doom sent my heart racing. Something was coming. What?! I couldn't tell, I didn't know anything.

It was thundering closer. Ever closer. What would happen when it reached me?

As the presence grew closer I felt it; it was merely a shadow of someone who had once been.

And suddenly I wasn't scared. The Domain would protect me.

It already had, by arming me with the glimpse of knowledge I now had about the presence.

"Begone, Shadow-of-Sundered-Star. You are no more." The words fell from my lips, but they weren't mine. It wasn't my voice.

It was something else. Feminine and wise, heart broken as if the very sentence she uttered destroyed her world. A keeper of knowledge. A protector.

She spoke to me, then, through the air. "_Return, Reviver. You are needed."_

My eyes snapped open and I lurched forward.

A choked groan fell from my lips as the incision over my ribs pulled.

"What happened?" Kelly grabbed my shoulder and helped me sit back against the wall.

Fred looked down at me with a perturbed face. "You collapsed."

"I-I was in the Domain. It's...it was so..." Indescribably beautiful, I wanted to say, but I found myself at a loss for words. Ironic.

I took a deep breath, ignoring my twinging ribs, and closed my eyes. I had to focus.

"It showed me what's going to happen to Reach," I said quietly.

"What?" John's voice betrayed his fear, same as his heart.

I looked down. "The Covenant is going to glass it."

His voice was hard. "Did it show you how to stop them?"

"No. I...I don't know if we can."

"We have to." He looked up. "Anton, what's happening out there?"

"Our forces are being pushed back, Master Chief. The Covenant is simply too numerous."

"Reinforcements?"

"A fleet from Tribute has been sent to assist. They will not arrive for another two hours and forty seven minutes."

"Damn." Fred shook his head. "You're sure it didn't show you how to stop it?"

"It didn't." I chewed on my lip.

"Then why would it show you?" John demanded.

"I-I don't know."

Kelly's head shot up. "To evacuate the planet. We need to save as many people as we can."

John jerked his head. "Go talk to the Captain."

She nodded, dashing through the door.

John turned to me. "Can you go in there again?"

"I can try."

The Domain was there.

I made my way inside, it was easier this time, and found myself in a hallway. I couldn't tell if it was the same one or not.

"_Why have you returned, Reviver?"_ It was the wise voice from before.

"I need to stop the glassing. Do you know how?" I looked around for her, but I was alone in the hallway.

Her voice was full of sorrowful resignation. "_You know as well as I that the desecration cannot be stopped."_

"No!" My voice was desperate. "There has to be some way to stop it. T-there's always a way."

"_Child, do not fight the truth. Reach is already lost."_

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I'm too impatient for my own good. I swore I was gonna take a break and rest for a bit, but I am so ****_into_**** this story. Ya know?**

**Anywho, here's chapter one of Chipped's sequel :)**

**(Edited 12/31/19)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Anton came over the speakers. "An emergency evacuation has been issued. All personnel make their way to the hangars for evacuation."

I tried to stand, pressing against the wound on my ribs. It hurt, but I imagined dying on this ship would hurt worse.

"Can you make it?" John was the only one who'd remained in the medbay with me. Something, deep down inside of him, wanted to stay with me.

Even though I didn't deserve his company.

"I-I'm fine," I assured him. "What about Linda?"

"They'll jettison her cryo pod. A Pelican will find it and take it down to the surface."

He grabbed my upper arm and began pulling me along. In the hospital gown it was hard to run, but I did. My ribs felt like something was digging into them, a distinct pain that was becoming harder and harder to ignore.

We ran into the hangar, where Pelicans were shuttling personnel off of the ship. We climbed into one, not finding any sitting room. It was packed full.

John wrapped an arm around my shoulders as it took off into the expanse of space. Everyone aboard was distinctly aware of the battle still waging around us; we could get shot down at any moment.

"W-where's the rest of Blue Team?" I asked.

"Already on the surface."

I looked around the Pelican, full of soldiers and a few officers.

"We'll be okay," I whispered to myself. "We have to be."

Still, I found myself pressing into John for comfort. My breath was heavy with fear, my eyes closed.

As we entered the atmosphere everything shook.

Or maybe we weren't entering the atmosphere. Maybe we'd been shot, and were careening towards our deaths.

I bit my lip to keep quiet as we lurched through the air. I was acutely aware that we could die at any second.

We could die _right now_. We could get shot down, or blown to pieces, or splat against the ground like bugs on a windshield.

When we landed, at an ONI base, Kelly and Fred jogged towards us.

Kelly reached us first and said, "The Covenant's been here, it wasn't just the tracker. They're after artifacts underneath the base."

Fred nodded. "They're moving in right now. The rest of the survivors from the _Pillar_ are being rerouted to the New Alexandria spaceport."

"How far out?" John didn't release me. Instead, he seemed to pull me closer.

"About eighty clicks out. They'll be here within thirty minutes." Kelly's voice was grave. "Dr. Halsey's holed up with the other researchers in a safehouse beneath the facility."

"Frederic," John pushed me forward, "get Tawny to Dr. Halsey, then meet back with us."

Fred nodded, grabbing my hand.

I held on tightly, following his rushed pace with some degree of difficulty. I understood his haste, though.

So we went down. Fred must have had a map pulled up on his HUD, because he seemed to know exactly where we were going.

When we arrived, in a series of caverns, he pulled me towards one that had been sealed off by a metallic door.

His thumb hit the intercom. "Dr. Halsey?"

"Who's there?" Her voice was cold.

"Fred. I've got Tawny, and orders to drop her off with you."

The door hissed open. A few handfuls of researchers were inside, spread out over the room. Most of them were in small groups along the walls, comforting each other in the face of this unthinkable attack.

I walked in and turned back to Fred. "Please be safe."

He nodded as the door closed between us.

"Well, I didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon."

I turned to face Dr. Halsey. "Neither did I, doctor."

"I heard you went on the field with Blue Team."

"Y-yeah, I did."

"How'd that work for you?"

I winced. "I destroyed the ring world."

"Hmm, you say that like it's a bad thing."

I sat down against the wall, beside a greying woman in a lab coat. "Destroying the Halo wasn't bad, but being able to is."

"How so?"

I looked down and bit my lip. "I don't want to have that kind of power."

In truth, the idea of having as much power as I did terrified me. But what was even more horrifying was that I hadn't meant to destroy the Halo. I'd meant to retrieve the Index from Guilty Spark, who'd stolen it from me.

Instead of retrieving a tiny little key, I ripped apart a world.

What would happen if I got angry again?

The intercom beeped again. "It's Professor Anders."

Halsey hummed quietly, with a distinct sense of disgust, and opened the door.

When Anders saw the doctor her lip curled. She walked past her without a word.

"Professor Anders." I was relieved to see her alive. "You made it."

"It takes more than a few Covies to take me down." She settled next to me. "Now we just have to hope our soldiers can keep them back."

I nodded, curling my legs up to my chest.

She looked me over, noting the greyish blue hospital gown and lack of shoes. "What happened?"

"O-oh." I glanced down at myself. "They found a tracking chip on me. They think it's from when the- when the Covenant had us."

"When did they find it?"

"This morning."

"Where is it?"

"In my ribs. They took it- they took it out a few hours ago."

Her eyebrows shot up. "That was fast."

"I can't believe I didn't notice." I tightened my arms around my legs.

"They could have drugged you. It was hard to notice time passing in there."

My heart sped up at the memory of the Covenant brig.

I shivered. "Yeah."

**oOOOo**

We'd been holed up for the past two or three days while the battle raged above us. I'd been given some emergency clothes from one of the pods in the bunker, a grey jumpsuit and black boots, so that I wasn't walking around in a thin cloth gown.

Except for Dr. Halsey and a few others, who'd been in and out, no one had left the bunker. Only a few were important enough to be able to help the war effort and organize the other ONI bases on the planet.

"What made you do it?"

I turned to Dr. Halsey. "What?"

"What made you go out on the field?" she pried.

"I-I don't know." I turned away from her, facing the far end of the room.

A group of researchers was huddled there, trying to get comms back up.

"Yes, you do. Something happened on Harvest." Dr. Halsey was insistent

"You're-you're reaching for something that isn't there, doctor."

"Something out there called to you." She leaned towards me.

Professor Anders walked up and put her arm around my shoulder. "Leave her alone."

Her resolve was steeled by hatred for the doctor.

Dr. Halsey humphed, turning away from us.

Anders looked down at me. "What was that about?"

I ducked my head. "No-nothing."

She shot me a look before walking off. I slid down the wall, holding my communicator in my hand.

I waved my hand over the small disk once, but it didn't activate.

My head fell back against the wall. "Right, it's dead."

The intercom buzzed. I felt my heart jolt before reaching out; it was Kelly and John.

I rushed to open the door, despite Halsey's objections, and threw my arms around Kelly. "You're okay! What happened?"

We'd been holed up for at least two days. We had no idea what was happening outside.

Kelly placed a hand on my shoulder. "We warded off the Covenant, but not for long."

John stepped forward. "Tawny and Professor Anders are being evacuated to New Alexandria."

My heart dropped. "What about you?"

"The Covenant got through orbital support. We're staying, to protect SWORD Base."

"No." My eyes widened.

"We'll see you again after we've dealt with the Covenant, don't worry." Kelly patted my shoulder.

I hugged her again. "Please don't die."

John stepped back. "We should get moving."

Anders stepped out, walking in front of me down the hallway. She was eager to get away from Halsey.

I subconsciously reached up to grab John's hand while we walked. I didn't realize I'd done so until I felt his shock.

Still, curiously, he didn't pull away from me.

I thought back to how close we'd been, before I'd gone and screwed it up.

"John?"

He looked down at me as we ascended in the elevator.

"Please," I looked up at him with my green eyes full of emotion, "be safe."

He nodded minutely.

When we arrived at the Pelican, Fred ran up and grabbed John's arm. "Change of plans. Red Team's staying here, we're taking the rest of the researchers to New Alexandria."

John didn't miss a beat. "Kelly, go get the others and meet back here."

Kelly nodded and ran back into the building.

I tried to look away from the dead bodies, both Covenant and human, that littered the tarmac.

Soldiers were walking around, taking their fallen comrades to be honored. They tossed the Covenant corpses into the back of a few Warthogs, bound for the huge lake on the edge of the base.

The stench of death sank into every corner, thick and heavy.

I closed my eyes, leaning against John. My face turned into him, trying to block out the aftershocks of the carnage he called home.

He gently wrapped his hand around my arm. "We should load up. Kelly will be back soon with the others."

Fred ushered Professor Anders in and climbed in himself, his gun still up. Just to be safe.

I sat on the right side of the Pelican, next to John. He was right by the door, gazing out towards the base.

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall of the plane. The bodies had set an uncomfortable pit in my stomach.

Some of the Unggoy had looked too similar to Dadip.

A hollow laugh escaped my lips; like I would ever see Dadip again. He was a prisoner aboard the _Spirit of Fire_, a ship I wasn't on anymore. I doubted I'd ever see it, or him, again.

My eyes opened. "Are comms up in New Alexandria?"

Fred shrugged. "As far as I know."

"Good." I nodded a bit. "Okay."

Kelly came back with a handful of researchers. Dr. Halsey wasn't present, I noticed.

So did John. "Where's Halsey?"

"She stayed behind with a few of the others to see how much information the Covenant managed to steal." Kelly helped a few of the scientists into the Pelican.

She climbed in, sitting on my right.

John slid his gun onto his back. "We're ready."

He must have been speaking into a comm, too, since the ramp pulled itself up and the Pelican lifted into the air.

I closed my eyes, feeling for the Domain again. I hadn't tried to enter it since we'd evacuated the _Pillar of Autumn_.

It was getting easier and easier to find, it would seem.

I slipped in with almost no problems, finding myself once again in a massive hallway.

When I took a moment to look, I could see the similarities between this architecture and the constructions on Installation 04.

They were similar, but not the same. The halls of the Domain seemed...older. More hallowed.

I felt a presence. It was fairly neutral. Wise. Loyal.

"_Who are you?"_ There was no malice in his voice, but nothing amiable either.

"I'm Tawny Clark. What's your name?"

I turned and saw a towering metal creature, his various body parts held together with an invisible force.

He regarded me with a small amount of contempt. "A _hamanush."_

He must have been at least fifteen feet tall.

I took a few steps back, gazing up at his glowing, skull-like face with a small degree of awe. "Wh-who are you?"

"I am the Warden Eternal, the keeper of the Domain."

"You know what the Domain is? C-can you help me?" If he kept the Domain, he must have known all about it.

He seemed to flare with anger at the question. "Why would I help a-"

The Domain stirred around us. It's magnificent strength took my breath away.

"I see." He looked back down at me. "You are no normal human. Alright, Reviver, I will assist you."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Here's Chapter Two! Now, you guys know I'm all for screwing up the timeline. But, I try to do so in a realistic manner. Having the SPARTAN IIIs on Reach as soldiers isn't very realistic. I will change their ages so that they're a bit older, for reasons wayyyyy down the road, but they're not augmented yet.**

**(Edited 4/6/2020)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Life in the city of New Alexandria seemed to go on almost as normal. A few people were evacuating, but most of the Covenant was much further North. The ground forces weren't a threat from up in the mountains.

I was stuffing a suitcase full of clothes. All of mine had been destroyed with the _Pillar of Autumn_. Luckily, I'd had the chance to buy more in the city.

I was sitting in a hotel room, which the UNSC had secured for me. It was right next to Professor Anders' room, which I was perfectly okay with. Anders and I got along pretty well.

I curled up on the bed and swiped my hand over my comm. There was a message waiting.

I found the video, opening it up. Second Lieutenant Bradley Davidson filled the hologram.

"Hey, _mi chiquilla_! _Te extraño_. I'm glad to hear that you're okay, though. We just made a stop at Roost, and I got a couple weeks' shore leave. You would like it there, I believe. So many sandy beaches," he trailed off, his eyes distant.

I smiled softly.

"Anyways, I gotta go. Today's supposed to be busy. Oh, Phong says hi, too. Stay safe, _porcelana_."

The video stopped. I shut the hologram off, holding the communicator in my hand as I stared out the glass wall. The city expanded for what looked like forever.

New Alexandria really was a gorgeous city.

But it didn't have my family.

I didn't even know if my parents were alive. Phong and Davidson were on the _Spirit of Fire_, and so was Dadip. He was there as a prisoner, though, so that was a bit worse.

John hated me. Kelly and Fred were busy. Linda was in cryosleep, clinging to life by a tether.

I was so, so close to being so alone.

I turned on the comm, setting it to record.

"Hey, Bradley. I'm glad you got some time off, you need it." I sighed through my nose. "I-I saw the doctor again. She's as aggressive as always. I'm glad Professor Anders was there."

My hand ran through my hair.

"We're doing okay here, we're holed up in New Alexandria. We have been for the past few days."

I looked out over the city.

"The Covenant's all up North, at SWORD Base. They're about to start evacuating the planet, I think. I...I don't know much, but I think they're going to let the Covenant glass it. They're scared they've found Earth, so they-they want to shore up the defenses there."

Reach was about to get the same treatment as so many outer colonies, like my home of Eridanus II. I wondered how they'd like it.

I shook myself out of those bitter thoughts. "Stay safe, okay?"

I shut off the recording and sent it to Davidson. A heavy sigh deflated my body.

Someone was at the door. I sensed them a moment before a heavy hand knocked. The distinct sound of metal on metal echoed around the room.

I slid out of the bed, fixed my black crop top, and unlocked the door. It slid open and I looked up at the towering figure.

My heart drummed up a quick beat. "John?"

"Can I come in?" His voice was unreadable, his face was covered by his helmet, and he kept his emotions carefully neutral.

"Y-yeah." I stepped aside, letting him into the room.

"We're being transferred to the UNSC _Euclid's Anvil_ after New Alexandria is evacuated."

Oh, he was here on business.

I had no right to be upset about that, so I shoved the ugly feelings down.

"When-when are they evacuating?" I asked.

"Right now. They're evacuating the whole planet."

I felt my heart skip. "So we're going to abandon Reach soon."

He nodded once. This time I felt his unhappiness.

He was born on Eridanus II, but he didn't remember it well.

Reach was where he was raised. His home. His home was about to be glassed by the Covenant, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

I turned to grab my duffel bag. "Where's Linda?"

Something flickered inside him. Guilt; he felt responsible for her condition. "She's already aboard the _Anvil_."

**oOOOo**

"How is it that you came to experience enlightenment so casually? Entire races spent eons forming this plane, yet you stumble upon it like a child."

I looked up and behind me, to the Warden. I'd been looking into a room in the Domain, but the insides were too foggy to see. Most of them were.

"I-I don't know. It just called to me. Every time I went near Forerunner ruins." I peered into another room.

Warden hummed. "So I heard."

I turned to face him. I was barely higher than his knee, so I had to crane my neck. For some reason, I was finding it difficult to fly, or use any of my powers, in the Domain. "So how long have you been here? You were made to protect the Domain, right?"

"Indeed. I have been in service here for thousands of millennia, since before the firing of the Halo Array."

"That's a long time."

He nodded.

"Do you ever get lonely?"

"I have the echoes to speak with. However, until you entered, I had not been able to see humanity. The Domain can only show the truth of things already known to it. You are the first human to touch the Domain."

I started walking again, looking at some of the intricate artwork on the walls. "There was a voice. She called me 'Reviver'. So did you, when we met. Why?"

"It is what you are. A Reviver."

"But 343 Guilty Spark called us 'Reclaimers'. I understand now that humanity was prophesied to take over the Forerunner Mantle of Responsibility. Am I not like the others?"

"I do not dignify foolish questions."

I bit my lip. "I mean, I-I know I can do things that others can't, but am-am I fundamentally different from other people?"

"I suspect you are. The Domain, a normally passive force, calls to you with strength I have not seen in ages." He paused. "It calls to you now."

I felt the pulse. My eyes scanned the hallway. "That doorway."

He waved his hand for me to go.

I turned to face him. "It was nice talking with you, Warden."

He said nothing as I walked into the room.

My eyes opened in the _Euclid's Anvil_. The instant I stepped foot into that room I'd woken back up.

But something was different.

There was an urge, a deep knowledge that I didn't have before. I had something to do.

I focused on the feeling. My eyes slid closed as I turned my mind inward once more. There was an instinct to do something, and there was someone.

John.

I felt my entire body fall numb. A sharp numbness, like if sparkling water was a physical sensation. When my eyes reopened I stumbled back.

Not back...down. I'd been floating.

I crashed harshly against the ground, crying out in pain. John was awake immediately, pulling his sidearm out and aiming it at me. In his sleepy haze - it was the middle of the night - he still recognized me.

I was in John's room.

"Tawny?" He put his gun down.

My eyes were wide. "I-I don't know what just happened. I was- I was in my room, and this just happened. I was _just_ in my room."

He sat up, pulling his helmet off. "Slow down."

The Domain was there, pushing the knowledge that it had given me to the forefront of my mind.

My eyes widened even more, if possible. "I can teleport."

"What?"

"I was in the Domain, and i-it wanted me to go into this room. So I did, and it sent me back here. Then, suddenly, I'm in your room. I just...popped in."

He looked tired.

"I-I'll try to go back to my room now. Sorry for bothering you."

He didn't say anything, slightly uncertain. He wasn't really angry at me anymore, but I had hurt him. Most people mess up and say things in anger, but I said what I said out of concern for him.

It had been the worst possible thing to do.

I stood up, dusting my butt off, and exhaled sharply.

"Right. How did I…" I was distinctly aware of his eyes on me. It made it so much harder to think.

"Stay."

My head shot up. "W-what?"

"If you want to."

I felt my heart skip a few beats. "Okay. A-are you sure?"

He nodded.

I made my way across the floor, wrapping my arms up and around his neck. He returned the embrace, breathing in deeply.

"I'm sorry, John. For-for what I said. I was wrong." I looked up at him. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

He laid back down, taking me with him. "I know."

A simple agreement. I really hadn't meant to hurt him. I did, though, and he didn't shy away from that.

But damn, it was nice to be with him again.

I eventually fell asleep atop his chest, like I used to months ago.

**oOOOo**

I awoke with an intense feeling of _rightness_.

My eyes stayed closed for a few minutes as I listened to John's steady breaths. My head was against a bump in his armor, serving for a hard pillow, and I could feel it rise and fall with each breath.

"Good morning." His voice was gravely in the early morning. I'd missed hearing it.

I hummed, my eyes still closed. "Morning."

It was silent for awhile.

I was happy with the silence; it gave me more time to enjoy being with John again.

I felt myself drift off into a half-asleep state. I was completely at peace.

Nothing could bring me down. All thoughts of the war, or my parents, or my home, were gone. Banished, to the back of my mind where worries could wait for a minute or two.

Of _course_ the Domain couldn't let me rest. I felt the hypnotic pulse that I now knew was the Domain, calling me.

I groaned into John's chest.

"Tawny?"

"Hmm?" I didn't look up.

"What is it?"

My voice was muffled. "The Domain wants me to do something again."

"What?"

I shrugged a bit. "I don't know. I'm trying to ignore it."

I felt his fingers in my hair. I'd gotten it cut in New Alexandria, so that it fell to my shoulders.

The pulse was drawing me in...I almost swayed. It was like a slow, muted melody that drew me in to sleep. Almost impossible to resist.

I humphed. "Give me a minute, I'll see what it wants."

I delved once more into my mind. The Domain was coaxing me. The urge...and a place.

A campus, surrounded by palm trees. Crisp white and black uniforms. Military officers.

My body fell numb.

I realized what was happening too late to stop it.

My eyes snapped open just as my body began to dissolve into chalky blue specks of light. "John-"

Suddenly, fresh air. I was in the air.

Forty feet above a flat, grassy field full of people.

I tumbled towards the ground, a scream tearing loose from my mouth. I curled into myself, wincing in preparation for an impact that never came.

My heart beating rapidly, I opened one eye. I was floating a few inches off of the ground. I was surrounded by uniformed people, black and white like I'd seen.

Just as I lowered myself onto the grass - it'd been so long since I'd felt grass - I was surrounded by armed soldiers. "Put your hands behind your head, now!"

I winced, terrified of getting shot. "No, you don't understand! I'm from- I'm with ONI!"

I had to figure out where I was. I had my communicator in the pocket of my nightgown, but I doubted they'd let me pull it out. So I sat there, my hands on my head, as a Warthog rolled up.

A tall, well-kept, middle aged man stepped out.

One of the soldiers saluted. "General Oshiro, sir!"

He walked up to me, his eyes calculating. "What have we here?"

I glanced nervously at the rifles pointed my way. "I'm with ONI, I p-promise. I was on the _Euclid's Anvil_. I don't know why I'm here."

He looked down at me with narrowed eyes. "We'll see about that."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I literally could not stand keeping John and Tawny apart. I'm so sorry for those of you who love pining, I can't do it.**

**Anywho, here's chapter three cuz two was sO short :)**

**(Edited 4/6/2020)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

I was cuffed, in one of the few holding cells in this place.

I'd snuck into the General's mind, pushing my guilt at the invasion aside, and found that I was on Earth. A place called the Huveane University of Military Science, in New Mombasa.

What did the Domain want with me here?

I decided to find out, since I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I closed my eyes, quickly slipping into the Domain.

The hallways were comfortingly familiar, despite my newness to the Domain. It was as if I was meant to be here.

"Warden?" I called.

He was behind me, appearing suddenly, but as if he'd been there forever. "Tawny."

"I just teleported to Earth."

He said nothing, looking down at me expectantly.

"W-why am I on Earth?"

"I do not know. The Domain deigned it necessary to take you to where you are. Perhaps, if you are quiet, it will guide you to the answer."

I looked around, my eyes landing on the metal archways lining the hallway. The hall seemed to expand forever.

There was one door...it seemed to buzz. A low buzz, like the pulse that guided me.

It was entrancing. I found myself walking on numb feet to it, a primal urge to know what was on the other side.

A voice in my head murmured, "_The Domain will show you what you need."_

When I walked in, I found myself in a large metal room. It was round, with a circular couch-like structure in the center. There was an intricate metal table in the center of that. And, half-facing me on the couch, was a towering woman with white skin and a flat face.

She looked up when I walked in. "I knew you would find me."

I paused. "You-you're the voice. The one that saved me the first time I was here."

She nodded once, regally, her eyes full of infinite wisdom and infinite kindness. "I am First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song, though most know me as the Librarian."

I walked through a gap in the couch, sitting ninety degrees from her with my back to the doorway. "Do you know what's happening to me?"

"Child, I am the one who put the pieces into play."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"I was a Lifeworker, at the end of the Forerunner Ecumene. I foresaw the end of the galaxy that I fought so hard to preserve, thousands of years later."

She looked down at me. She must have been ten feet tall.

"But I am no warrior. I am a Lifeshaper. So, I shaped life. I planted seeds. Both in you, and in your fated one."

"I...what do you mean? You shaped life?"

I was a bit too scared to ask about my "fated one".

"Indeed." She held her hand out, over my head. "You are human, but not wholly. You have been gifted with abilities that evolved beyond my power or knowledge. I planted the seeds, but the Domain has overtaken my conquest. You are more than a Reclaimer, now, you are the Reviver."

"What does that mean?"

"You will rebuild the Domain, and open its gates to the galaxy once again."

I bit my lip. "But I don't know if I can do that. The-the Warden said it was just a shell of what it used to be."

"Yes, the firing of the Halo Array damaged it severely." I could feel her regret. "But it has chosen you to breathe life back into it."

I shook my head, at a loss for words.

So I did what I usually did; change the subject. "You...said you planted seeds somewhere else?"

"In the one your destiny lies with, yes. I coaxed evolution to make him better. He is now, ultimately, the warrior. You are the healer, he is the protector. Together, you may save the galaxy. The Revivers."

"I-I still don't understand. Who's the protector?"

She met my gaze. "The one you call 'John'."

My eyes shot open in the grey holding cell.

My heart was beating out of my chest; had she been serious? Were John and I meant to be, like soulmates?

I shook myself; she must have meant we were fated to work together.

Of course, that made sense. He was the protector, she said. I was the healer. We would fix the Domain.

The Librarian talked like there was another threat. One to the whole galaxy. I wanted to go back and ask her what is was, but before I could, the door slid open.

General Oshiro walked in, flanked by two soldiers. "I spoke with Commander Morton of the _Euclid's Anvil_. She was kind enough to give me your file. I apologize for the rough nature of your detainment."

A soldier walked forward and unlocked the cuffs on my wrists.

I rubbed at my wrists. "It's alright. I-I understand."

He stepped aside. "These men will escort you to Colonel Javoka's office; he'll help you get settled in."

He walked out.

One of the men nodded towards the door. "Let's go, miss."

I was walking between them, looking the opposite of intimidating in my oversized grey nightshirt and slipper socks.

I briefly wondered if I would be given clothes to wear, or if I would have to go buy even more. The universe seemed very against me owning my own substantial wardrobe.

We walked into a pristine office, where there was an equally pristine man seated behind a desk. The soldiers on either side of me saluted.

"At ease, men."

They relaxed.

"Your file is very interesting, Ms. Clark." Jakova leaned forward and met me with intense eyes. "Recorded abilities well beyond any normal person, speculated abilities even more so. The General reported to Commander Morton that you seemed to appear in mid-air above the training fields. What do you have to say about that?"

I nodded. "I-I did teleport. I'm still learning what I can do; I discovered that last night."

He typed something into the holopad on his desk. "Is that the only new skill you have? The Commander's curious."

"I-it is." I didn't think accessing the Domain was a skill. Most of the time it reached out to me.

"Alright. If you'll come with me, we can get you set up." He turned to the soldiers. "You're dismissed, men."

They saluted and walked out.

"You're going to be bunking with one of our squads. Velites Squad."

He led me into a long, white hallway. Doorways lined the hall, with no doors I could see. He led me to the third room on the left.

"You'll be bunking with Cadet Trenedad Jobe. There are clothes for you on those hangars." He pointed to the right side of the room, where there was a bed carved out of the wall.

Behind the bed, above where my head would be, was a metal pole hanging near the top of another carved-out section full of clothes. In the middle of the room, on the far wall, was a desk with a built-in holopad. The left side was a mirror image of the right.

He turned on his heel. "I trust these accommodations are sufficient?"

"They are." I looked up at him. "Thank you."

He nodded and walked away.

I turned back to the room, looking at the clothes. Black shirts with "HUMS" on the back. Black sweatpants with "HUMS" down the right leg. I made a face; back to the boring, repetitive outfits.

Still, it was better than nothing.

I sat on the bed, taking out my holopad. I pulled it up and found another video from Davidson. He was in the rec room, it looked like.

"Hey, _bicha_. I'm glad to hear you got off of Reach safely. It's a shame they're letting it get glassed. Surely they could have kept the Covenant away if they tried."

He thought for a minute before perking up.

"Oh, guess what? I got assigned to the brig for the week. That little Grunt - Dadip? - was trying to speak English. He said something about how he missed you. I think he's a bit weird, but-"

Someone pushed him aside. "Hey, 's that Tawny? Kid, you left without telling me goodbye!"

I laughed through my nose as Phong made a wounded face.

"You'd think you don't love me or somethin'. Hey, how's yer SPARTAN doing'? Hope he hasn't been keeping you up too late!"

He guffawed as Davidson shoved him away. "Damn _cabron_, he doesn't know when to shut up. I think I need to handle this. Be safe, _chiquilla_."

I closed the video, twisting my garnet ring around the middle finger of my right hand. How would I explain recent events?

I decided to wait until later to respond.

Chatter filled the hallway, just before someone walked into the room. A young man with a well-kept afro and skin so dark it was almost literally black.

He paused in the doorway, his mouth gaping a bit, before he spoke. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm Tawny. Colonel Jakova said I was bunking with someone named Trenedad."

"I'm Trenedad."

Before either of us could say anything, an emotionless, masculine came over the speakers. "Cadet Trenedad Jobe to Colonel Jakova's office."

He ran a hand over his hair. "I'll...I'll be right back."

I heard bickering erupt in a nearby room as he walked away.

Shrugging to myself, I pulled up a scientific domain on my communicator and found an article that interested me.

I was about halfway through the eight-minute read when a short girl with braids poked her head in. "Hey, Jere!"

She stopped when she saw me.

"You're not Jere."

I put my comm away. "Who?"

"Are you his replacement? Did he actually leave?"

"He did." Trenedad was back.

"He did?!" the girl cried.

Trenedad stepped into the room, pulling his black and white jacket off. "Yeah, this morning. She's not his replacement, though."

The girl looked at me. "She's not?"

"She's some civie working with ONI. She's staying here for about a month."

I nodded. "I'm waiting for the UNSC _Euclid's Anvil_ to arrive. That-that's where I'm supposed to be."

Trenedad pulled up the comm that was built into the desk, scrolling through the hologram.

The girl shrugged. "I might as well show someone. Wanna see something cool?"

I stood. "Lead the way."

We walked across the hall together.

She held her hand out to me as we moved. "I'm Towanna Jobe, by the way."

I shook it. "Tawny Clark."

"So, Tawny, are you a researcher? You look a little young, but ONI always goes after the geniuses."

"N-no, I'm not a researcher. I-" I couldn't tell her about my powers. What if she wasn't supposed to know about them? I wracked my brain. "I...I'm an expert on Covenant society."

"Isn't that a researcher?" She shot me a look.

My face heated. "I guess."

She knelt over her desk, calling up the hologram. "Check this out."

There was a video, what looked like security footage, of a drill Sergeant. He was out front, by the training fields. His hands were on his hips, his body language bored.

"I managed to hack the camera system." She grinned. "Aksel has no idea."

"Aksel?"

"The dumb AI running this place. He's clueless."

As we watched, the drill Sergeant walked off screen. Towanna switched the view to Colonel Jakova's office.

I shifted. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is. I've been working on this for weeks. No one's gonna know." She looked up at me. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

I shook my head. "Not a word."

"Good."

She closed the video feed and shut the comm off.

"So, Tawny, some of us are going out for day drinking. You wanna come?"

"Oh, I'm not old enough to drink."

"Really?" She was surprised. "How old are you?"

"E-eighteen. How old are you?"

"Trenedad and I are twenty one. Saran is nineteen, she's the youngest in our squad."

I turned as someone rapped on the doorway.

A short man with an elvish grin. "Hey, T.J.! You comin'?"

"You bet your ass I am. Come on!"

She ran out after him. I found myself alone in a room that wasn't mine. So I made my way across the hallway, settling on the bed.

Trenedad was still there, reading an article on the comm.

I looked up at him. "Aren't you going out with them?"

He turned to me. "Who? My sister and her buddies? Not a chance."

"Why?"

"They tend to get a little crazier than I like." He leveled me with a casually intense gaze. "What about you? I'm sure she invited you."

I shook my head. "I'm not old enough to drink."

"That doesn't stop anyone."

I pulled out my comm. "Maybe it should."

He shrugged and turned back to the desk.

I queued up my IDs and found Ellen Anders. I held my fingers above the "Live Call" button.

Would she want to talk to me?

I wasn't actually even calling to talk to her, as horrible as that may be. I wanted to ask how John was.

I couldn't find a good way to say that, without sounding like a bitch. So instead I pulled up Davidson's ID and started recording a message.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Here's chapter four! Sorry if the updates are irregular; school's a bit crazy rn. Anywho, I'm planning YEARS ahead for Tawny so don't worry about the updates. I'm definitely not going on hiatus any time soon.**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/6/2020)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

I had my comm out in front of me, recording.

"Hey, Bradley. I'm glad you're doing okay. Tell Dadip that I said I miss him, too. And Phong," I added as an afterthought. "We're safe, for now. Linda finally got treatment, but it wasn't on Reach. After we evacuated she got treated on the _Euclid's Anvil_."

I sighed, a hand in my hair.

"They say she's gonna be fine, so that's good. Oh, you're not going to believe this. I'm not on the ship right now. I'm on Earth. I've never been to Earth before, but I hear that's where you're from."

My fingers tapped against my lap.

"I'm in a place called New Mombasa. A training academy. It's really nice. You said you were from Spain, right? That's not really all that close, but it's on vaguely the same landmass I think."

I hummed.

"I don't know. Things are kind of boring. I guess that's a dumb thing to say, given the circumstances, but it's true. I-I'll talk to you soon."

I sent the message and tapped the side of the comm lazily with my fingers.

"You were on Reach during the glassing?"

I turned, cringing, to face Trenedad. "Yeah."

"How are you here? That was only a few days ago."

"I know."

"So?"

I sighed heavily, sliding my comm up into my sleeve. "I don't- you're probably not allowed to know about it. It's...it's kinda not something everyone knows."

He nodded. "Got it."

I could feel his curiosity, a mild itch, but he was good at tuning it out.

I took a deep breath, exhaling sharply. I wanted to see how John was, and he didn't have a comm. There was nothing wrong with asking Anders about him.

Nodding to myself, I pulled my comm back out. I called her before I could chicken out.

Her face filled up the hologram. "Tawny? What the hell happened? Morton said you were on Earth."

"I am! It's something new that just happened."

"When?"

I bit my lip. "This morning?"

"The Domain again?"

I nodded, distinctly aware of Trenedad listening to us from the desk.

"I should have known," she said. "Lucky that's where we're headed. Just stay where you are, okay?"

"I will." I twisted my ring around my finger. "Um, h-how's John?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "I haven't seen him."

"O-okay. I was just worried, because he was there when this happened, and it was really kinda sudden. I'm scared he may be freaking out."

"The Commander said he visited the bridge at oh-nine-thirty this morning, sound about right?"

"I don't know when I woke up."

"Well," she shrugged again, "if I see him, or any of his teammates, I'll let him know what happened."

"Thank you." I deflated with relief. "You're the best."

She leaned forward with a teasing grin and an arched brow. "So does that mean you were with him last night?"

"Not like that." I flushed red. "This started happening in the middle of the night. I ended up in his room on accident."

"And stayed."

"And stayed," I confirmed.

"So he's forgiven you?"

"I-I hope so. I wouldn't blame him if he didn't, though."

"Can't you tell?" She made a face.

"No-not really. He's hard to read, even for me."

"I didn't know people were hard to read for you."

"He can barely read himself."

"Ah." She sat back. "Got it. Listen, I've got to go. Call me if anything new happens, okay?"

I nodded. "I will. Bye."

I shut the hologram as she exited the call.

My eyes closed as I leaned against the back of the wall.

I spun the ring around my finger, listening to the constant, low hum that was the Domain. Now that I knew to look for it, it was something that I realized was always there. Just at the edge of perception.

Someone was at the door. "Ms. Clark?"

I looked up and saw a tall blonde woman in a uniform. "Yeah- yes?"

"I'm Dr. Mendoza. I heard you just went through surgery, and I wanted to check up on the incision. Can I see it?"

I sat up on the bed, nodding. I pulled the neckline down to my waist. The black sports bra stood out against my pale skin, which seemed to accent the inch-long incision along my right rib cage.

She bent down to look at it. "The glue seems to be holding up well. You had the surgery seven days ago, yes?"

I nodded.

"Is it still sore?"

"A bit."

"That should go away in the next few days. Come see me if it doesn't, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alright." She stood. "That was all I wanted. Have a good day."

**oOOOo**

I was up on the roof.

I'd been at HUMS for a week, and I'd found a place in the back where no one could see me if I flew. From there, it was easy to fly onto the roof, some seven stories up.

I could look down and see the training fields, the UNSC base not too far away, and the ocean. I'd never seen an ocean before; it was beautiful.

I laid flat on the roof, closing my eyes and feeling the sunlight on my skin. The sun on Eridanus II was blue. The orange sun of Earth was unfamiliar.

The Domain pulsed through my mind again.

I shifted, trying to ignore it. Focus on the waves hitting the sand. The seagulls across the roof.

It was insistent.

I muttered, "I'm coming, I'm coming."

My eyes closed, and I once again slipped into the unique plane of existence called the Domain.

I looked around. "What do you want now?"

The pulse brought me to a door again.

When I walked in I saw the Librarian. She was sitting on the circular couch, her hands folded in her lap. She was slightly aged, but in a regal way. A way that radiated knowledge and prowess.

"Tawny," she greeted me with a nod.

"First-Light." I grinned. "How are you?"

"I am well."

I settled on the couch, across from her. "What's up?"

"I have been thinking for some time. Time, it passes differently in the Domain, you understand. What has been a week for you was much longer in here."

My head tilted. "What were you thinking about?"

Her eyes were troubled. "You are about to face a grave danger, Tawny. The galaxy itself, the Domain, life. It's all balancing on the ridge of fate."

"S-so what can I do?"

"This meeting isn't to scare you, child. It is a meeting of rejoice. While the seeds in your genesong have been blooming since your birth, the seeds within the other Reviver have been stunted. Today I will activate them."

"What? I thought John's seeds were his compatibility with the augmentations."

"They are," she nodded, "but that is not all. Unfortunately, the augmentations, and the struggles of his childhood, did suppress the rest of his unique genesong."

"What else can he do?" I leaned forward.

"His abilities are much more known to me than yours. He can control ultrasonic waves, like you, and access the Domain without technological aid, like you."

"Were those the only abilities you'd planned to give me? You said the Domain gave me more."

"It did, yes." She looked down at me. "But you were never supposed to have all of the same abilities. Your empathy, your telepathy, those were also planned by me. Just as the other Reviver's strength and prowess."

"B-but those are all of my abilities. Empathy, telepathy, telekinesis, and accessing the Domain." I counted them off on my fingers.

"Are they?" She smiled. "Can you not kill the Flood directly? A feat that not even the entire Forerunner Ecumene could accomplish."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah...I can. That's fair."

"And are you not on Earth, when you should be aboard a ship still three weeks away?"

I stuttered, "I-I didn't know that was an ability that _I_ had. I thought- I thought it was the Domain moving me around."

"The ability is yours. The Domain only served to teach you how to use it."

"Oh." I looked down at my hands. "I may not use that one for awhile. Just to be safe."

"I understand." She nodded. "Now, it is time to call your partner to us."

She stood, dusting herself off.

"All you must do is focus on him, and the Domain will do the rest."

I nodded, closing my eyes. I could feel the Domain swell around me as it readied itself.

John.

I could picture him almost perfectly. Intense blue eyes, a strong jaw. Close-shaved brownish hair, and a bit of stubble on his face. Unnaturally defined muscles and thick scars.

A strong sense of right and wrong. Unwavering conviction to do what was right.

Trauma. A silent promise, now a desperate hope, to never lose another SPARTAN. A deep-seated guilt over deaths out of his hands, but under his command.

The Domain erupted around me, and suddenly I could feel John.

My eyes opened, and there he was in front of me.

When I was in the Domain I wasn't wearing my own clothes. I was in a long, greyish-white dress with silver armor over the chest, back, and shoulders. Sturdy grey boots with thin fabric on my feet. John was wearing the exact same thing.

He was looking around, confused. His hand itched to reach for a weapon that wasn't there.

His eyes shot up. When he saw me he relaxed a bit. "Tawny?"

I stepped towards him. "John."

"What is this?" His eyes scanned the area. He tensed when he saw the Librarian.

"It's okay." I placed a comforting hand on his forearm. "This is First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song. She's...she's the one who gave me my powers."

"I planted them within her genesong many lifetimes ago." First-Light stepped forward. "And I planted similar seeds within you, John. Unfortunately, yours were suppressed."

He looked down at me. "I don't understand."

"You're in the Domain, John. I-I'll let her explain, because she puts it a little better, but you're supposed to have abilities, too." I ran my hand down his arm. "She's going to help you get them."

First-Light nodded. "Your compatibility with the augmentations, your strength. Those are gifts I gave you. The other gifts were, unfortunately, locked away by the harsh nature of your upbringing. Today, I will activate them once more."

He reached down to grab my hand, staring the ancient Forerunner down. "Why?"

"The Universe is in grave danger, Revivers. We must act swiftly. An ancient force conspires against us, even now."

"Who?" John stepped forward.

"Trust that he seeks to end you, before you can end his plans."

She looked down at us.

"I really must complete your genesong, John."

John looked down at me. Uncertainty was etched into his face.

I offered him a smile. "It's your choice."

His eyes lifted to First-Light. "Is this threat bigger than the Covenant?"

"He is." First-Light was completely serious.

John nodded. "Do it."

"This will cause your soul great strength, and your body pain. Be warned, and remain focused."

I stepped back as she placed her hand on John's forehead. Suddenly, blueish-white arcs of energy flowed over his body. He lifted off of the ground, his muscles tensing.

When he landed, he almost winced for a moment.

His stance was strong when he stood, though.

He rolled his shoulders. "Was that it?"

First-Light nodded.

"Will I know how to use them, like Tawny did?"

"You should, yes."

"Good." He nodded. "Tell us about the threat."

She looked down. "I knew him once as Shadow-of-Sundered-Star."

I gasped. "The voice, the first time I was in the Domain."

"The universe today would know him better as Ur-Didact."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I promise, things are going to get interesting soon. I have big, BIG, plans for Tawny and John**

**:)**

**(Edited 12/31/19)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

I was on the roof again. My eyes kept wandering to the cadets training. I saw a pair grappling over the grass, plastic knives clutched in their hands.

For a moment I was jealous again. They could move so viciously and strongly without hurting themselves.

_I_ wanted to be able to fight and be strong like they were. Never having to worry about hurting myself, pushing myself to far on accident. Feeling my joints pop and crack every time I moved.

But there was no use dwelling on that.

I shoved myself to my feet and moved towards the back of the building. I jumped off, wrapping ultrasonic waves around myself, and lowered to the ground.

The back of the building was marked with signs to stay in the front, where the sidewalk was. But the back was so beautiful. Through the thick palm trees was a beach. The yellow sand was barely visible, but the roar of the ocean was impossible to miss.

I took a deep breath. The air was thick with salt; it was refreshing.

Seabirds were gliding around over the trees. Most of them avoided the University, but a few brave ones circled above the big open field in the middle of the campus.

I walked back around to the front of the building. I found myself looking around, at both the beautiful architecture and the breathtaking wildlife. It was really nice outside. I was still savoring the fresh air after months on a ship.

"Hey, Tawny!"

I looked up and saw Lacy, his hand up in greeting.

"Hi!" I waved back. "How've you been?"

Lacy was in the room next to mine. He was fun; a bit out there, but fun.

"Pretty good," he replied. "Oh, I wanted you to meet a friend of mine. She says she knows you."

I fell into step beside him. "I...don't really know anyone from Earth."

"Oh, no, she's not from Earth." He turned and began walking back into the building. "She's from Eridanus II."

"What?" I stopped, my eyes wide.

"Yeah, I know. She swears she knows you, though."

My heart drummed up a dizzying cadence. "O-okay."

Who could it be? I mean, at least someone that I knew had survived the glassing of my home.

But who was it?

We walked into the dorms, but down a different hallway. A different squad was bunking here.

"Hey, Laure, I've got the civie you're always talking about," Lacy called.

My heart stopped. I walked into the room, coming face-to-face with a short, middle eastern girl. She had a black hijab on, it complimented her HUMS uniform.

That familiar, almost-cocky grin. Her dancing eyes.

"Laure?" I breathed.

"Tawny!" She jumped off of her bunk. "I knew it was you."

I was stiff as she hugged me, but I quickly latched my arms around her, too. "You-you're alive!"

"You, too." She smiled up at me. "I didn't think you made it."

I was at a loss for words.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I wrapped my arms back around her. I hadn't known if she'd survived the glassing, and knowing she was alive was such an unexpected relief.

"So, she _was_ telling the truth." Lacy was leaned against the doorway. "I'm surprised. So, you survived Eridanus II, too?"

I nodded, still not trusting myself to speak. Laure and I...we had a long history.

She grabbed my hands. "You have to tell me everything! Lacy said you're working with ONI now; how'd that happen?"

"I-I...Um..." I couldn't even think as she led me to her bed.

We sat next to each other.

Her deep black eyes were filled with joy. "I still can't believe- I didn't know anyone else survived."

I gripped her arm. "Did my parents survive?"

"They did. They _swore_ you died, though. Zacharius and Zeke were there; Zeke's mom died, too."

A horrible, sudden, wrenching pit collapsed within my heart.

"A-Aunt Billie's dead?" I whimpered.

Laure nodded, her sympathy palpable. "I'm so sorry. When your parents heard that both of you had died...have you even spoken to them since the glassing? And...and how'd you get out?"

"I-I can't..." I tried to steady myself against the desolate news I'd just received.

But most of it had been good; my parents were alive. It sounded like Zeke and Uncle Ry were alive.

But Aunt Billie was dead.

I eventually regained myself. "Laure, there's a lot happening. I don't know how much I can say."

"Not even for me?" Her eyes were wide.

"Oh, is there a history here?" Lacy settled on the bed across the room from us. "Do tell."

"Tawny and I were dating, before the glassing," Laure explained.

"Laure..." I looked at her regretfully. "We ended things before the glassing. Y-you know that."

"Well, yeah," she shrugged, "but I thought it was because of your parents. You haven't even talked to them yet, so I don't see why we can't get back together."

"W-why would I stop dating you because of my parents?"

She pursed her lips. "I figured they didn't want you dating. They were always so overprotective."

"That...Laure, I-"

"Awkward." Lacy made a face. "Imma head out before things get worse. See ya, Laure."

Laure's brows furrowed, her eyes following him as he left the room.

Then she turned back to me, her emotions rippling. "So...you don't want to be with me?"

"I…" I looked down at our hands, which were intertwined. "Laure...so much has happened. I shouldn't- I shouldn't tell you."

"But you're going to, aren't you."

She knew me so well.

I looked down with a tiny smile. "Yeah, I'm going to. Please don't share this with anyone, okay?"

"You have my word."

"Okay." I took a breath. "We should probably go somewhere else, w-where people won't overhear."

"There's nowhere here like that."

"I know a place." I stood up. "Come on."

She took my hand, a grin on her face. "I thought _I_ was the one who lived here, not you."

**oOOOo**

It was windy up on the roof. I was dangling my feet over the edge, off the back of the building, trying to organize my words.

"I...you always used to say I knew what someone would say before they ever said it," I eventually started.

Laure nodded.

"I did. I do. I can...hear thoughts. I can- can feel what people feel."

"What?" She looked at me. "How?"

"That's...an even longer story. Let's just say I was born able to do it."

"So...what? How did that help you survive the glassing?" Her eyes were pained; the glassing was still a very fresh wound for so many of us.

"ONI found me. They took me a few days before the glassing." I closed my eyes.

"What? No, no, Zacharius and Zeke saw you die. They said they saw you die."

"Y-yeah," I winced, "they did. O-ONI replaced me with a flash clone."

"They _what_?!" she erupted.

"I know. But they did." I looked down at my clasped hands. "A-and they put me on a ship, so that they could figure out what I did. I don't actually work for ONI, but the doctor I was with does."

"So...I feel like there's more."

"There is." I nodded. "Quite a bit. To make things short, I got new abilities from a Forerunner world we stumbled on, and got captured by the Covenant for a bit. Now I'm working with a team of SPARTANs to fight them."

"You're working with SPARTANs?!" Her eyes were bright. "So SPARTANs _are_ real! I want to meet one so bad! Are they really as strong as they say?"

"I-I don't know what they say. But yeah, they're pretty strong."

"And you're not scared that they'll accidentally hurt you?"

"Nope." I shook my head. "No way. They'd never do that."

Her eyes narrowed, I could practically see the calculations running through her mind. "You're into one of them, aren't you?"

"W-what? No." I looked away. "Maybe."

"Called it." She grinned. "Come on, spill. Are they interested, too?"

I bit my lip, smiling down at the ground. "He is."

"Oh." She leaned forward. "What's his name?"

"John."

"John?" Her face scrunched up. "Kinda old-fashioned, don't you think. Is he cute?"

"More...handsome. He's cute, when he wants to be."

"Does he not usually want to be?"

"No." I shook my head. Then I laughed. "He normally doesn't care."

"Is he mysterious?" She made a face.

I laughed again. "To some people. He's good at keeping secrets."

She stood, grabbing my hand to haul me up. "Come on, speaking of secrets. You're gonna love this."

**oOOOo**

It was well past midnight. Laure, Lacy, Towanna, Trenedad and I had snuck out of the academy.

We were walking through New Mombasa, on roughly the third level. I looked down and saw the ocean gleaming beneath us.

Towanna pointed ahead. "There's the tech store! We _have_ to go!"

Trenedad made a face, but said nothing. He knew better than to try and dissuade his sister's eagerness.

Lacy didn't, though. "Why would we go there when we could go get food? The mall's right there, in case you didn't notice."

Towanna shot him a deadly look. "There's a new mod out for the Ib8b and I'm _not_ about to miss the sale."

"How about this," Trenedad stepped in, "I'll take Towanna, and we can meet back up later."

I looked up at him. "B-but that's not fair to you. You're hungry."

"So?"

"I'll go with Towanna."

Laure leaned over to whisper in my ear. "You _really_ don't wanna do that."

I shrugged a shoulder. "I'm kind of interested in the mod, too. Go on, we'll find you guys."

"If you're sure." Lacy grabbed Laure's hand and started towards the mall. "See you."

Towanna turned to the store, an intense eager emotion surrounding her. Her excitement was infectious, and I found myself grinning wildly as we walked into the store.

What I'd thought would be a short trip turned into an hour-long excursion to find out any and everything about the mod.

We ended up sneaking back into the base just before the sun came up. The others had already gone back; they'd let us know around 0200 that they were turning in.

It was _much_ later - earlier? - when we crept past the soldiers posted outside the barracks.

**oOOOo**

"Knock knock."

I looked up, smiling when I saw Towanna. "How are you?"

"I'm good. The General wants to see you."

"Oh, okay." I stood. "Where is he?"

"In his office. It's right by the Colonel's." She nodded in that general direction.

"Got it. Thanks!"

I made my way through the halls. The academy was really nice. It was very different from the ships I'd grown used to. Delicate decorations, pristine white walls, lush grass outside.

I really enjoyed it here.

I found the General's door open. "General Oshiro?"

"Tawny, good." The General looked up at me from his desk. "The _Euclid's Anvil_ has arrived, and is docking on Cairo Station."

My heart jumped with excitement as I stepped into the room. "It has?"

I _knew_ it was supposed to be arriving soon!

Oshiro nodded. "Yes. You will be shipping out this afternoon."

"Oh." My face fell. I hadn't considered that.

I would have to leave everyone I'd met here. And Laure.

"Are you prepared to leave?"

I nodded, shoving down my sadness. "I am."

"Good. Good luck up there, Tawny."

"Thank you, General."

When I was dismissed I made my way quickly towards Laure's room.

Her roommate, Mandie, was in there.

When I walked in, however, she excused herself.

Laure reclined on the bed. "Hey, Tawny, how's it hanging?"

"G-good." I looked down. "Um, Laure, I'm leaving."

"Leaving? When?" She sat up from where she'd been sprawled out on her bed.

"T-this afternoon."

"That's sudden."

"I know." I bit my lip. "I-I'm going to miss you."

"Aw, Tawny." She walked up and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm gonna miss you, too. I'm sure we'll see each other again, though."

I nodded, resting my chin on her head. "We have to."

She was a tie to my life before it had been uprooted. I didn't want to leave her so soon.

The past few weeks with her had been awesome. We went out into the city several more times, with a group of friends, to walk around after dark. We'd almost gotten caught out past curfew twice.

She was still just as bold, and caring, as I remembered. I would miss that.

I would miss her.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I promise, next chapter is better. I'm running on a lethal amount of energy drinks right now. That's completely unrelated, but nonetheless true.**

**Love y'all :)**

**(Edited 4/6/2020)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

I climbed into a warthog, which was going to take me to the military base a few miles away. From there I would take a Pelican up to Cairo Station.

John would be there.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of the warthog. I leaned over, brushing my hair behind my ear, and watched the driver switch it up to second.

"How many gears does it have?" I asked.

"Hmm?" He turned a bit towards me to indicate he was listening, but his eyes never left the road.

"How many gears?"

"Only five. They get the job done, though."

My eyes shot up to the speedometer. "Forty five in second? How high is this thing geared?"

"She's up there." He patted the dashboard affectionately. Then he looked over to me for a second. "You don't look like the car type."

"So I've heard." I shrugged. "M-my dad was always into antique engines, and he made me learn to drive in a surplus warthog he found."

"No kidding," the man laughed. "I bet that was an adventure."

"It was. I-I haven't seen this model before, though."

"Yeah, this thing's made to carry more personnel. We just got a fresh shipment; I'm test driving."

"That sounds fun."

"It is pretty fun." He nodded and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Pretty fun indeed."

We pulled into the base and up to the main building.

"Well, here's where you get off."

"Thank you!" I climbed out of the warthog, with some difficulty. The newer model was just taller than my head at the seat.

The warthog growled as it drove away, rumbling my bones.

I walked through the building and out onto the tarmac, looking around. I was supposed to meet one Colonel Argo, but I didn't know where he was.

Luckily, he found me.

"Ms. Clark, I presume?"

I looked up and saw a tall man with an immaculate military uniform. His posture was stick-straight and he had a holier-than-thou air about him.

"Y-yes, that's me." I brushed my hair behind my ear.

"Wonderful. Right this way, dear."

He walked me over to a Pelican, full of impatient soldiers.

"Give Admiral Cole my greetings, would you?"

I nodded as the Pelican closed its ramp. There were no seats available, so I made my way to the area behind the cockpit and reached for a hand hold. They were well above my head, but I grabbed one nonetheless.

When we landed in the Station I rushed into the hangar, reaching out for anyone I knew.

I saw John, in new armor, standing a few feet away.

"John!" I ran forward and latched my arms around his waist. "I missed you."

"I'm glad you're here." He placed a hand on my back. His hand was so big that he could practically wrap it around the back of my waist.

"So, how are those powers treating you?" I asked. "The Domain didn't call me back, so I'm assuming everything went well."

"I'm working on them."

"It takes some getting used to," I sympathized. "I'm sure you're doing fine."

I reached up and grabbed his hand as we walked through the hallways. I could see Earth through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. It was beautiful.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Admiral Cole wants to talk to you."

My heart jumped. "W-why?"

I was a bit intimidated at the thought of talking to someone so high-ranking.

John just shrugged.

I was happy to be back with him. We'd been apart for so long. My hand was wrapped around his as well as it could, not willing to let him go again.

As we walked down the hallway, a marine coughed into his hand. "SPARTAN's bitch."

I glanced at him with wide eyes before looking up at John. He didn't give any outward indication that he'd heard the marine. Emotionally he was aggravated, but he pushed it down.

"A-are we that obvious?"

John glanced down at me, before looking down at our intertwined hands.

"O-oh. Fair enough."

"ODSTs will find any excuse to talk about SPARTANs. They don't mean it."

"Oh, I don't care." I bit my lip. "I'm just- I'm worried. We got away with this with two different Captains, but Fleet Admiral is completely different."

"Admiral Cole isn't like that."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded.

We walked into the control room.

A tall man with back hair, dressed in neatly pressed clothes, walked up. Admiral Cole.

"Master Chief, Ms. Clark." He nodded to both of us in turn. "Thank you for joining me."

He turned, facing the window with his hands behind his back.

"The Covenant will be arriving soon. We've got ships poised to take them down, but we're putting troops on the ground as a security measure. Ms. Clark, I understand you have experience in the field."

I nodded.

"We're sending you down with Blue Team to protect the base in Mombasa."

I felt John bite back a protest.

I twisted my ring around my finger. "Got it. I can do it."

John's helmet snapped down to look at me, and I barely kept myself from flinching under the severity of it.

The Admiral looked up at John. "Got something to say, Chief?"

"Sir, Tawny is a potential liability on the field. She has a chronic illness-"

"She also has the ability to destroy a sun and rip a world to pieces. I've read her file. And Professor Anders has made a replacement suit for the one lost with the _Autumn_."

John's emotions were bitter. "Sir."

"You two are dismissed. Go get suited up, Clark."

John saluted and walked away. Out of the bridge.

I ran to catch up. "John?"

"Tawny, it's dangerous."

"I know."

This time, he grabbed my hand. We were walking towards another hangar.

"Where are we going?"

John slowed his pace for me. "Professor Anders is still aboard the _Anvil_ with your suit."

He was clamping down hard on his emotions. I could barely read them. He was scared for me, again, and he was trying to push it down so that it wouldn't distract him.

"John, I-I can handle myself. I promise."

I was willing to bet anything that his jaw was clenched under his helmet. "So could Sam."

I paused.

Talking about Sam is what caused John to stop talking to me for so long. It was an incredibly sensitive topic.

But I didn't have time to be sensitive.

"J-John, I already said that- that I'm not Sam. Maybe I'm weaker, but I'm still not him. I'm here, with you, and I know that-that everything's going to be fine. You can feel it, too."

We walked through the airlock and into the UNSC _Euclid's Anvil_.

"Optimism is what gets people killed," John finally said.

"This isn't optimism. It's the Domain." I brought my other hand up and rested it on his forearm. "I _know_ we're going to be okay."

We walked into Anders' workspace. She looked up. "Tawny! Good, we don't have much time. I remade the suit, get it on."

I grabbed the suit, running into a bathroom in the corner to change.

The suit seemed to cling to my skin; it was difficult to pull it on. But I managed, and felt my body relax at the pressure it gave me. Enough to ease my joints, but not so much as to hinder my circulation.

Professor Anders really was a genius.

When I walked back out, clad in the black armored suit, there was another man out there. He walked forward, shifting his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other.

"You must be Tawny Clark. Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, good to finally meet you."

I shook his hand. "You, too."

He turned back to John. "Chief, you ready? We've got a base to get to!"

As we walked towards the door, Anders gave me my new helmet. "Be careful out there, Tawny."

"Thank you." I pulled the helmet on. "We'll be back soon."

An alarm started blaring, red lights flashing throughout the ship.

"Dammit, that means they're here. We've got to get to the surface, move!" Sergeant Johnson took off.

I ran after the two soldiers, climbing into the Pelican beside John. I could have grabbed a handle again - there were no free chairs - but I opted to instead grab John's hand. It was easier to reach.

"This could get bumpy. No chunks on my ship, you hear?" The pilot's voice came over the intercom.

She sounded calm and collected, but I could feel her fear through the cockpit door.

Everything shook as we entered the atmosphere. I wrapped my other arm around John's, praying I would be able to keep my footing.

We landed smoothly, thank god, and Avery Johnson ran to the bottom of the ramp. "Alright, men, prepare to mobilize! Get to those hogs! Go, go, go!"

"So, where are we going?" I struggled to keep up with the Sergeant as he high-tailed it to a warthog.

"It is our job to protect the Huveane University of Military Science. Buncha cadets halfway through training."

I climbed into a warthog with John and Avery and let John take the wheel. "That's where I was this past month."

Johnson was up on the machine gun. "Good, so you know the land."

"I guess I do."

We pulled up, and saw the cadets being ushered out. They were being evacuated to the other side of the planet, away from the main assault force. I saw Trenedad and Towanna climbing onto a Condor bound for the Americas.

Someone from Cairo Station was talking to us. "Some of the Covies got through! They're taking this fight to the surface!"

"You heard the man." Sergeant Johnson was talking to us in the hog with him, and the other ground troops under his command. "We've got to secure this academy. I don't wanna hear _anything_ but the sound of those alien bastards _choking_ on their own _blood_! Am I understood?"

Sergeant Johnson had been aboard the _Pillar of Autumn_ with Blue Team and I, but he'd been in cryosleep. I hadn't met him. He was very gung-ho.

I kinda liked it.

He was out of the hog before it fully stopped, directing troops. "Chief, I want you with those turrets! Clark, go protect the rest of the cadets!"

I nodded, running off towards the line of soldiers in training. It was Dynami Squad; Laure's squad.

I stood on one side of the line. A few of Sergeant Johnson's men were with me. Dynami Squad's leader, a young man with hair that seemed almost too long for protocol, was trying to keep them calm.

Something was coming. The Domain rushed my head with warnings.

My gaze shot up, and I spoke both through my suit's external speakers and the comm. "Missile incoming! Move!"

The cadets broke into a run away from the main building, where the missile was headed. I ran, slower, behind them. When the missile hit a massive shockwave blew most of us off of our feet.

I rolled over onto my back, scrambling away as shrapnel flew towards me.

I saw a chunk of building flying towards a soldier and held my hand out, pushing it to the side. It crushed the ground beneath it, scarcely a foot from the tense man.

He was one of the lucky ones.

I forced myself to look away from the crushed bodies of cadets and soldiers alike. We had a job to do.

I shoved myself to my feet and grabbed a woozy and terrified cadet. "Get away from the buildings!"

A host of Covenant Banshees shot towards us through the smoke. The _boom_ of anti aircraft cannons shattered the air, and several of them were taken down.

I saw Kelly dash forward, leap onto a Ghost, and shoot the pilot through the head.

She jumped out as it careened into a wall, an explosion of flame evaporating the alien corpse.

I looked up at her, somewhat in awe. "Woah."

"Thanks." She bumped my shoulder and ran back into the fight.

A soldier in the front was stabbed through with an energy sword, its wielder invisible.

Someone's voice came over the comm. "Elites!"

"Clark! Get those cadets to the base! They've got evac waiting!"

I nodded to Sergeant Johnson. "You got it!"

I made my way over to Dynami Squad.

"Come with me, we're going to the main base on foot." I waved the cadets to follow me. "Your ride's waiting."

"You heard her, move!" The Squad Leader waved his teammates ahead of him.

We filtered quickly into the woods, not willing to risk the exposed roadway.

I could feel the cadets' uncertainty; I didn't even have a weapon. How could I be of any use? And in _this_ terrifying situation? Their school had practically been demolished!

A flaming hulk of metal - a Ghost that had been shot down - landed in front of us, taking down several trees.

"Shit!" I jumped back. "Go around, quickly!"

The cadets filed around the wreckage behind me. I heard one of them stifling terrified gasps.

It was mostly silent for a few minutes.

We had a mile or two to go, so we were jogging, but we also didn't want to exhaust ourselves. I was tired already - no surprise there - but if push came to shove I could always fly.

There was something in front of us.

I held my hand up in a fist for the cadets behind me to stop.

"There's something here," I murmured.

"What? How do you know? Who even are you?"

I turned to look at the disgruntled cadet. It was one Guillermo Sanchez, who bunked across the hall from Laure. His dust-covered face was tear-stained.

My voice was a fierce whisper. "Is it- does it matter? Be quiet, or it'll find us."

I saw Laure perk up at my voice; she knew it was familiar.

I reached out again, feeling the being. It was a Sangheili, and he was barely twenty feet away. Behind a massive group of boulders.

"He's on the other side of the rocks," I warned them. "Get down."

"I don't know how to tell you this, but we're gonna stand out anyways. We're dressed like walking targets." Beatrice, another girl in Dynami Squad, gestured down to her black and white uniform.

The Sangheili had heard her.

I crouched on the other side of the boulder, facing the cadets. I brought my finger up in front of my helmet, where my mouth was, to signal them to be quiet.

Leaves crunched under the Sangheili's foot as he stepped out, his sword igniting. He was invisible, but the glow of his sword wasn't. He didn't see me, though; his attention was on the cadets.

I brought my hand up in a fist, wrapping my powers around his neck. Before he could even choke I twisted my hand.

His neck snapped.

He flickered into sight as his body dropped to the floor. I bit my lip, looking away from yet another addition to my body count. "Come on, we need to keep moving."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: One day, I'll write long chapters. I swear, it'll happen eventually. Until it does, though, I'm so sorry that these are so short :(**

**Also! I changed the Admiral from Lord Hood to Admiral Cole. I decided it worked better with the timeline; as of 2030-ish Lord Hood was still a Captain or something**

**(Edited 4/6/2020)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

There was a collection of Kig Yar hiding in the trees.

I only noticed when a cadet got shot down by needler rounds. Jeremy; he was the kindest. His parents, who'd both been in the military, pressured him to enter the University as soon as he turned 18.

He hadn't wanted to be there.

And now he was dead.

I snarled, more in grief than anger, and made fists with both of my hands. There were five Kig Yar, I pulled all of them to the ground. Two of them survived the fall from the top of the towering palm trees, three of them died when they hit the ground.

I picked the surviving two up and clenched my fist. The ultrasonic waves compressed them, crushed them, in an instant. It was a gruesome death, but a quick one.

I turned to see a few of the cadets, there were only five left now, kneeling beside Jeremy. I got down on my knees and closed his eyes. I couldn't bear to look at the gaping wound in his chest.

"Some-somebody grab his tags," I managed to say. "We need to keep moving."

A sobbing man took his dog tags and tucked them into his pocket.

I lifted my hand, surrounding Jeremy's body with ultrasonic waves. I carried him through the forest, my head bowed.

The remaining walk was silent, heavy with grief.

We didn't face any more opposition on our way to the main base. The UNSC was shooting down the Covies in the air above us, but no wreckage had landed on or near us.

I took the cadets onto the tarmac of the base, helping them onto the waiting Pelican. A medical team took Jeremy; they knew he was dead, but someone had to take care of the body.

I grabbed Laure's arm. "Be safe."

She smiled at me knowingly, her face still tracked with tears. "You too...Tawny."

I slid my helmet off. "You know me too well."

"Come on, cadet!" The Squad Leader ushered her onto the ship.

As it took off I turned to see the forces I'd come to the surface with, retreating on warthogs.

I ran up to John's hog. "What's happening?"

"We have new orders; secure the city. The attack on the University was a distraction."

"Got it." I pulled my helmet back on.

"There's Covenant the whole way. Can you operate a gun of any kind?" Avery Johnson's voice sounded doubtful.

"N-no, but I can drive."

"_You_ can drive a warthog? You _do_ know it's a stick, right?"

"I learned to drive in one." I climbed up, sitting on the edge of the vehicle next to John. "I've got this."

John moved over to the passenger seat as Johnson took the rear gunner position.

I dropped into the seat, moved it forward so I could reach the pedals, and shoved the warthog into first gear. We joined the procession of warthogs filing out of the base. At the speed we were going, I was in second before we even left the base.

There were at least ten warthogs behind us and about five in front. Kelly was a few hogs in front of us, and Linda and Fred were in the same hog near the back of the line.

A Ghost flew towards us from a side street.

John aimed his rifle at the pilot, while Johnson blasted its engine to bits with the machine gun. I never wavered in my course; this thing was too likely to flip over.

John's rifle tore through a small group of Unggoy as the trees cleared in front of us.

The city was smoking, and there was a huge Covenant ship hovering above it.

Why weren't they glassing it?

Not that I was complaining, but it was weird.

It was a risk, with how top-heavy the hog was, but I pushed it up into fifth gear. I accidentally let the clutch out a bit too fast. It jerked into gear, complaining for a second.

I glanced over my shoulder at Johnson. "The clutch is so touchy. I thought you guys made tough vehicles!"

"We make tough men, ma'am. The vehicles are outside of my jurisdiction." Johnson smoothly shot down three Kig Yar lined up in the trees, making sure they couldn't shoot us or the warthogs behind us.

The _Euclid's Anvil_'s AI, Jarcog, spoke to us through the comms. "I'm decoding a Covenant message. It's...it's just one word over and over. 'Regret. Regret. Regret.'"

"What does that mean?" Kelly asked from the hog in front of us.

Johnson shot through another Ghost as we pulled into the city proper. "'Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most _definitely_ regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!'"

An "Oorah!" came over the comms from the various Marines, both on the ground and in the air. I couldn't help but grin at his conviction, and his sense of humor.

Then I remembered something.

When I was imprisoned by the Covenant on the Shield World, I stole into the mind of a Prophet, also known as a San'Shyuum, and gleaned some information about their society.

I hopped on the comms. "Guys, Regret is a Covenant Prophet. O-one of their leaders. He must be here."

Someone commed from within the city. "Immediate: grid kilo-two-three is hot. Recommend mission abort."

Johnson spoke up. "Negative, we're going in. Thanks for the warning, recon. Clark, you ready to rumble?"

"Just shoot them before they get the chance to shoot us, please." I shifted the warthog down to fourth and veered around a pile of rubble, keeping an eye on the towering skyscrapers lining the street.

He laughed. "That's what I do best, short stuff."

An order came from Cairo Station. "Blue Team, get aboard that carrier. Secure the Prophet of Regret. This is the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land, and that Prophet is going to tell us why."

A giant Covenant Scarab tore through the buildings in front of us. It opened fire on a few Pelicans and they crashed into the ground.

I felt nausea overtake me, but I forced it down. Focus on the road. The roar of the engine. Shift down to third before you stall the engine.

I wove between the legs of the Scarab, dodging debris and overturned vehicles as much as the spiked legs of the assault craft. I didn't want to think about how, if one of those legs was over us, it could pierce through the hog like a hot needle through wax.

We emerged from underneath the Scarab, just as the Domain began screaming in my mind. Shifting the hog up to fourth, I slammed my foot down on the gas as soon as the clutch caught. My hands were shaking. We had to _move_; something horrible was about to happen.

I felt several men die as the Scarab turned and fired on the procession of warthogs. We were blown forward, the hog flipping into a pile of rubble.

I screamed as the vehicle crashed down over us. My head hit the steering wheel, and it hurt even through the helmet.

As we skidded, upside down, to a stop, my vision faded.

**oOOOo**

My head hurt. I groaned, looking around. I was in John's arms.

"You good, short stuff?" Sergeant Johnson was standing in front of John.

I groaned. "Define 'good'."

Johnson chuckled. "You're good enough to whine; you're alright."

John set me down. "You sure you're okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. What happened?"

Sergeant Johnson spit on the ground. "Damn Scarab blew up half my troops, that's what! We've already cleared the crash sight; you missed half the fun."

My helmet was off, so I didn't hear when a Pelican pilot commed. I did, however, feel everyone's focus shift to what he said.

John relayed his message to me. "The Pelican's too big for anything nearby. We're going to have to fight our way to the LZ."

"Got it. Where's my helmet?"

"Right here." Kelly held it out.

I tugged it on, nodding to her since she couldn't see my smile, and looked from John to Johnson. "S-so, what's the plan?"

Kelly looked up to the Covenant ship. "We're taking the Sergeant to the Pelican; he's needed elsewhere. Our primary objective is now getting aboard that carrier and securing Regret."

Linda shoved a fresh magazine into her gun. "Ready to move."

Johnson rested his gun against his shoulder. "Come on, men, let's go!"

We made our way through a destroyed courtyard. Everything was silent, dust polluting the air. It was almost eerie. A few potted palm trees still survived, swaying gently.

It was too peaceful. In the dilapidated, war-torn city, peace didn't seem real.

As we rounded a corner, plasma and needler fire shot through the air. John ducked behind the corner as a marine peeked around it. Two shots from his rifle matched two deaths I felt ripple.

Linda climbed up onto the roof of the short building we were hiding behind. I heard a series of shots from her rifle, and suddenly the enemy fire was significantly lesser.

John rushed out and sprinted across the clearing.

I ran after him. I could hear Kelly and Fred behind me, though they quickly passed me.

My head hurt. I had a welt on the left side of my forehead. But I shoved the pain down, something I'd gotten good at over the years, and turned my attention to the battle around me.

I picked a Kig Yar up into the air, slamming him back against a wall. As he lay there, dazed, I saw a marine finish the job. I mourned the death, but I was grateful that I wasn't the one to kill him.

There was someone behind me.

Invisible.

I turned, invading the Sangheili's mind and killing him instantly. He rippled into sight as his body thumped onto the ground. His glassy, lifeless eyes stared up at me.

I turned away with a shudder. Had he had a family? Someone he cared about?

Someone who would never see him again. Another casualty in this war.

_I_ killed him.

Focus.

The others were in another pathway, where the Covenant forces had been, and were pressing on. I jogged to catch up, reaching out to feel for any enemies.

John opened up a private comm to me. "Are you okay?"

I was between Linda and Fred, somewhere in the middle of the group. "Yeah, I'm good. Are you?"

He nodded minutely.

"Pelican's just ahead." Kelly looked around the corner. "The zone's clear."

We walked into another courtyard. It was in such ruin, with a destroyed bridge in the center, that it made the previous courtyard look put-together.

Sergeant Johnson climbed up the ramp made by the broken bridge.

He stepped into the hovering Pelican. "Blue Team, good luck."

The Pelican lifted up into the air.

John turned, looking up to the hovering Covenant ship. "We've got to get to that ship."

There were only four marines with us, but combined with the strength of Blue Team it was a formidable group. We pressed on, in the direction of the ship.

There was a huge Covenant force along a big street, and we couldn't evade them. We had to cross that street.

John, Kelly, and Linda mowed through the Unggoy nearest us. Fred ran forward, almost becoming a blur, and sliced through a Sangheili's throat with one of his knives. As bloody as it was, I couldn't help but be impressed with how easy he made it look.

One of the marines next to me got shot through the head. Shoving down my horror, I ducked behind a pile of rubble. I pulled his body down next to me and closed his eyes.

I pulled his dog tags off and tucked them into one of the pockets on my leg.

My muscles complained as I pushed myself up, running out towards a Kig Yar. He towered over me by at least a foot, but he was scrawny. Not to say I wasn't.

I shoved him back with a pulse. His neck snapped as he hit a stone bench. I turned my attention to a Sangheili, towering over a marine. Just as his sword came down towards the man's heart I took control of his body.

He turned away from the terrified marine, falling dead as I shut his brain off.

John scanned the area once more. "We need to move."

"Chief!" A soldier ran up. "Glad you could make it, Chief! Crash sight's on the other side of this hotel, Covenant are crawling all over it. Follow me."

He and a few other men, who we'd just met up with, took off at a run.

I'd run enough, my body decided, and my leg screamed at me when I took another step. I lifted up into the air without missing a beat, flying after the soldiers from a few inches above the ground.

We made our way through the hotel, fighting off the occasional Covenant squad. The hotel itself was creepy; festive decorations mixed with debris and sparking wires. A jovial, touristy decorum mixed with bloodshed and destruction.

I didn't like it.

Just as I saw daylight, a Sangheili rushed around the corner. John opened fire, tearing through his shields. Linda delivered the _coup de grâce_ with a shot to the head. The marines made quick work of the Grunts, and we walked out into another bridge-strewn courtyard.

A Covenant Phantom fired at us, almost hitting John.

I brought my fist up, wrapping around the Phantom and pulling it into the ground. It hit below us - we were a few floors up - and I felt everyone on board die when it exploded.

Blue Team spread out like a team of ghosts, slipping from cover to cover and taking down the remaining Covies. We all followed them, barely having to lift a finger against the Covenant on our way down. The SPARTANs had cleared the way.

A warthog pulled up near the Phantom's wreckage, shooting through a few stragglers.

The driver hopped out. "Courtesy of Commander Morton, SPARTANs."

I ran up, ignoring my sore legs, and tapped John's arm. "C-can I drive?"

He jerked his head towards the driver's seat, signalling me to get in.

I grinned, reaching up to climb in. My arms were shaking, though, and I couldn't pull myself up.

John knelt, cupping his hands with his palms up. I caught his meaning, placing my foot on his hands. He lifted me up and I settled into the seat. I was sure I was blushing under my helmet; I couldn't get in the damn hog by myself.

"Thanks, John."

He nodded before walking around to the back, climbing up into the gunner's spot. Linda was next to me, her sniper rifle ready to shoot down enemies.

Kelly and Fred were both behind us, in a secondary row unique to this model, with their rifles up and ready.

I almost felt bad for whoever stood in our way.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I'm back!**

**Also, just so you guys know, Chipped by Ashenbisexual on Spotify works with this story as well :)**

**(Edited 12/31/19 to 1/1/2020) (I accidentally edited straight through the ball drop oops :) )**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

I could feel a mass of Covenant soldiers ahead. If experience had taught me anything, we were going the right way. The more soldiers, the closer to whatever they were protecting.

And in this case, they were protecting a Covenant Prophet. We were going to capture him.

The SPARTANs shot the Covies down as we blew through them without a pause. Their bodies fell into the sand and mud of the beachside.

Linda pointed. "There's the bridge. We need to get across and make our way to the Covenant cruiser."

"Got it." I shifted up to fourth and let the clutch out, never breaking pace.

The path to the bridge was blocked by the ocean, and there was a steep incline preventing us from getting up onto the road. I slowed a bit, looking around.

"There!" Kelly leaned forward. "The tunnel!"

There was a tunnel to our left, broken open to reveal the inside to us, and it looked like it headed for the bridge.

I shifted down to third, forcing the hog up the ramp of broken stones and into the tunnel.

We passed another group of Unggoy, with a single Kig Yar leading them, and John quickly blew up their Ghost. Linda shot down three different contacts. Fred took out several in the time it took me to blink.

I jerked the wheel to take us around an empty truck, glad for the SPARTANs' weight. They helped keep the top-heavy vehicle grounded.

A group of flying creatures - Drones, I think they were called - opened fire on us with needlers.

I bit my lip and fought to keep the warthog as steady as possible so that the SPARTANs could shoot the flying bugs down. All we could do was pray we wouldn't get hit by too many of the glowing pink needles, or we'd explode.

The SPARTANs made quick work of the Drones, of course, and we continued on in silence for some time.

The end of the tunnel came into sight at long last. I could feel UNSC soldiers outside; only two.

I shifted the hog down to third, then second. Then, finally, first. I came to a halt just outside the tunnel.

John was the first one out, followed by the others one by one.

I floated myself out, much too sore to attempt to climb out. Even with the suit providing extra compression I felt like all of my joints were about to pop. Some of them _were_ popping. For example, both of my hips popped at least once as I walked over to the marines.

I walked beside John, careful to conceal just how sore I was.

On the bridge ahead was a Scarab, its heavy footfalls sending a shudder of dread down my spine.

One of the marines turned to us, her face troubled. "It blew right through us. Fifty cal, rockets...didn't do a thing."

The marine behind her was much less composed, understandably. I knelt next to him as Blue Team began formulating a plan.

"Hey, you're okay," I soothed.

He just looked at me, his eyes wide and his breath shaky.

I pulled my helmet off. "What's your name?"

"Hefner." He took a breath. "K-Kurtis Hefner."

A sympathetic half-smile tugged at my lips. "The Scarab killed everyone else, didn't it?"

"Them and the Covie ground troops." He nodded, still terrified.

"Blue Team's here now. They won't let that happen to you," I promised.

We both knew that Blue Team couldn't bring back his dead comrades, though.

A Pelican _thunked_ down behind me. I turned and saw it drop a giant Scorpion tank. It landed with an earth-shaking _thud_.

Kurtis stood up, walking towards the Pelican like a man possessed. He could barely force himself to pause in front of Johnson.

Sergeant Johnson hopped out and turned to the woman marine. "Where's the rest of your platoon?"

She stepped forward, shouldering her gun. "Waisted, Sarge."

"And we will be, too, if we don't get the hell out of here." Kurtis tried to rush past Johnson and climb into the Pelican.

Johnson grabbed his shoulder. "You hit, marine?"

"N-no sir."

"Then listen up!"

Johnson's voice got that growly tone when he was trying to inspire troops. I'd never heard it, but all four of the SPARTANs beside me had been hearing it for years.

"Blue Team is gonna jump on this tank," Johnson gestured to the Scorpion, "roll across the bridge, and blow up any inhuman son-of-a-bitch dumb enough to get between them and the Prophet of Regret."

He turned back to Kurtis.

"Pull yourself together! 'Cuz you're going with 'em."

"What about that Scarab?" The other marine stepped forward.

"We've all ran the simulations! They're tough, but they _ain't_ invincible. Besides, you got wonderbutt on your side." He clapped my arm. "Stay with the Master Chief, he'll know what to do."

"Yes, sir, Sergeant." The woman marine shot a look at her fellow marine before climbing onto one of the Scorpion's treads.

The Pelican took off, flying away. John climbed into the Scorpion.

Linda clambered up onto back right tread, her rifle out and ready to fire. I climbed onto the front left tread next to Kurtis. Kelly and Fred took the back two treads - Linda and Kelly were together - and the Scorpion rolled towards the bridge.

I pulled my helmet on just in time to catch a comm from John. "Do you think you can take that Scarab?"

I sized it up. "Maybe. I'll need somewhere safe, though, s-so I can focus."

He shot through a collection of Ghosts. "On it."

We were more than halfway across the bridge. The Scarab was on the other side, firing on us from afar. I had to redirect several massive balls of plasma so that they wouldn't hit us. They burned, and they were heavy, but moving them with my mind didn't hurt nearly as badly as getting hit by them would.

Another soldier, who'd been hiding in the rubble, jumped onto the front right tread with the woman marine.

A Phantom tried to fire on us, but I shoved my hands out and sent it careening into the ocean.

I couldn't think about how many beings I was killing. Creatures with lives and people they loved and- stop it.

John stopped the tank a few hundred feet from the end of the bridge. A few hundred feet from the Scarab. "Tawny, can you get rid of it?"

I slid down the tread. When my feet touched the ground I ran the fingers of my left hand over my right hand, feeling the bump of my ring underneath the thinly-armored gauntlet.

"Yeah, I-I think so," I finally said.

John didn't get out of the Scorpion, but he did open the hatch. "Blue Team, cover her."

Kelly, Linda, and Fred aimed their guns around, prepared to take any sudden threats.

I closed my eyes and reached out towards the Scarab. It was unbelievably massive. Physically, I didn't even compare. We were _all_ ants compared to it.

I wrapped my mind around one of the legs, jerking it out from under the main body. There was a metallic screech as it collapsed.

I bared my teeth and shoved my arms out. A massive pulse battered the Scarab, pushing it through the bridge's barriers.

My body went almost lax, and I took a gasping breath. My legs shook. I was already exhausted. But I had to do this.

I shook myself, throwing my arms out again. The Scarab slid off of the bridge, into the water below.

Water erupted from the impact of the massive vehicle. It looked almost like a geyser.

Every single person aboard that Scarab was going to die.

I made my way back to the Scorpion, sitting next to Kurtis.

"Okay, it's gone." My voice was breathy.

"Are you okay?" Kurtis put a hand on my shoulder, his face concerned.

"Yeah," I nodded, "just- I'm just tired. I'll be fine."

John pushed the Scorpion into gear and we continued on into the city.

I was slouched over my legs, my eyes almost closed. I'd never used my powers this much; not even on Installation 04.

I was happy to let John take any airborne enemies out using the Scorpion's cannon.

The road was full of Covies, but the cannon made quick work of most of them. The stragglers were shot down by the three marines and three SPARTANs riding on the tank. I was hardly needed.

Hopefully I'd be able to muster some energy when we boarded the cruiser. I _would_ be needed then. If I didn't contribute, then I'd be a huge liability, and we couldn't afford that.

"Are you alright?" John asked in a private comm channel.

I was leaning heavily against Kurtis.

I disabled my suit's external speakers so that only John could hear me. "I'm okay."

I could feel his doubt. "Are you sure?"

Even though he couldn't see me, I found myself nodding. "Y-yeah, I'm sure."

We drove through another tunnel. I felt my eyes closing. I couldn't sleep, but I found myself being drawn down into slumber nonetheless. The dark atmosphere was almost lulling.

Of course, gunfire was always good at waking me up.

Linda fired from the back tread, taking out two Kig Yar who were on foot. It was strange to me that they were by themselves. Maybe they'd just been sent on a small patrol?

John fired the cannon and took out a single Ghost. There were almost no Covenant forces in the tunnel.

We reached the end of the road, literally, and everyone hopped off of the Scorpion. There was a thick metal bulkhead in front of us.

John grabbed my arm as we walked towards a ramp. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm good."

With my helmet on, he couldn't see how drained I looked. But he was still unconvinced that I was truly alright.

We had to press on.

We made our way through a dark maintenance tunnel. We paused at the final bend; there was a Kig Yar at the end, silhouetted by sunlight. His back was to us.

There was a large park-like area below us, full of Covenant soldiers.

John nodded for Fred to take the Kig Yar in the mouth of the tunnel.

Fred crept forward, slicing the Kig Yar's throat in one efficient move. He caught the body before it hit the ground and hid it just inside the tunnel.

John poked his head out to analyze the situation. "Spread out and pick your targets. Fire on my signal."

Linda nodded and slid out of the tunnel. She climbed up the intricate, bridge-like passageways surrounding the park, and disappeared from view.

I watched as the three marines melted from shadow to shadow, hiding behind rocks and bushes and rubble. I myself hid by a broken metal formation that had once been an arch.

There were other arches that were intact, so I could see how beautiful my hiding space had once been. The arches were long and slender, swooping over the entirety of the park at uneven intervals.

Most of them had been destroyed, though. A stark reminder that the Covenant was _here_, on Earth - humanity's home planet - and they were coming in with a vengeance.

I didn't know where John was, but his comm came across loud and clear. "Fire."

Linda cleanly took out three different targets in the time it took the others to get one.

I reached my hand out and snapped a Kig Yar's neck, pushing my guilt aside as his body hit the ground. It was him or me.

We cleared the area in a few short seconds, walking out of cover like tentative children.

Kelly scanned around us. "This area is clear."

I looked up as another Scarab walked past, too far away to notice us.

John followed the direction of my helmet and saw the Scarab. "We need to move."

A marine in a warthog rolled up. "Could use someone on the gun."

The marine we'd picked up on the bridge hopped on, swinging the gun around to get a feel for it.

The driver leaned back to look at us. "I can take y'all to the others."

"Tawny, get in the hog," John ordered.

I looked up at him. "What?"

"You're tired." His voice was firm.

I waved the driver off as he offered me the passenger seat. "I'm fine. I can do this. Let's go."

The warthog took off, slowly, towards another conjoining park. The marine on the machine gun made quick work of the few ground forces there, before they could even try to fire on us.

I was floating a few inches off of the ground, my body too sore to move well in a situation like this. John noticed, and I could tell he wasn't happy, but he didn't say anything.

We made out way through a building with a nice waterfall in the front.

Despite the nice atmosphere, it was empty. I wondered what kind of people spent their day here, before it was reduced mostly to rubble.

When we emerged onto a larger roadway we saw a warthog thunder across the road, opening fire on a Covenant Ghost. The Ghost's pilot suddenly jerked, a splash of blood flying from his head, and fell to the ground.

Linda was standing there, her rifle still up and smoking. She'd shot the pilot out of a moving Ghost several hundred feet away.

I knew she was an impressive sniper, but that was unbelievable.

The marine on the warthog's gun shot down another Ghost, the last Ghost, and the hog continued up the road.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Lol I didn't know that Bungie and 343 peppered 7 references into Halo all the time, I just kept seeing 7 and getting excited because that's been my lucky number since I was in second grade (I was 7 then, too, lmao)**

**(Edited 4/19/2020)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

I felt a group of people inside a building at the end of the road. I reached out and felt...soldiers.

"Guys, there are marines in that building." I pointed towards it.

I reached out again to see if they were okay. Their emotions put me on edge. _They_ were on edge.

"They-they're trapped in there," I realized.

It was decided, silently and unanimously, that we were going to rescue those marines.

As we made our way underneath a bridge, Linda tensed and shot a Kig Yar that had been hiding out above us. John quickly took out another Kig Yar on the second bridge, a few hundred feet from us.

A Ghost sped towards us. I landed, ignoring the muscles in my legs as they caught on various knots, and held my hands out. I picked the Ghost up, throwing it at a Sangheili that had been trying to rush us. Two birds with one stone; both the pilot and the Sangheili died in the crash.

Linda took out several Unggoy with her rifle, and the marine on the turret handled the rest.

When we drove up to the building John took point.

A marine ran up to him. "Sir! Corporal Perez, A Company. CP's this way."

He began jogging up a flight of stairs.

"Lieutenant got hit as soon as we got in," he explained in a mournful voice.

We all stopped at the top of the stairs.

There was a doorway to our right, and the stairs continued up through it. Another soldier was standing guard by the door.

John stepped forward. "Who's in charge now, Corporal?"

"Sergeant Banks, sir. He's up top. Come on, I'll show you."

We continued up the stairs. I was still floating. My legs were so sore, they were shaking even with no weight on them.

But I would be okay. I was no stranger to pain, or to tuning it out. Muscle soreness was preferable to the pain that used to tear at my abdomen.

Back before I had my stoma, it used to get bad.

Several flights up, we saw a massive plasma beam through the doorway. A Scarab.

We ran out onto a balcony.

The Sergeant looked at us in shock. "When I asked for reinforcements, I didn't think they'd send SPARTANs."

The Scarab turned onto the street facing us. I shuddered in fear as its maw opened, preparing to fire.

Sergeant Banks pulled his rifle up. "We got trouble!"

It fired at a Scorpion on the street below us, absolutely eviscerating it. I felt something sharp and unpleasant in my chest as three marines died.

A marine near me had similar feelings. "You see this look?! It's terror!"

The Sergeant's voice was hard. "Marine, did I give you permission to _bitch_?"

A few soldiers opened fire on the Scarab, but it had no effect on the massive machine.

Despite my fear at the situation, the Domain was calm in the back of my mind.

"Guys, it's not going after us," I realized.

"Why should we trust you?" A marine looked up at me with doubt from his position by the guardrail.

"Dude, she's floating," his friend pointed out. "I trust her."

Sure enough, the Scarab walked over us, and over the building.

A marine was still pointing his gun at it, but he didn't fire. "That thing is really starting to _piss me off_!" His voice was a savage growl.

He wasn't lying, though; I could feel his anger.

"Marines," the Sergeant pointed for everyone to make our way up the staircase leading to the rooftop, "time to kill us a Scarab."

We all went up to the roof, where we could see the Scarab disappearing down another street. Massive buildings that dwarfed ours hid it from our view.

We ran into one such building and I heard someone groan at the sight of more stairs.

I stayed with Blue Team as they ran ahead. We eventually arrived onto a pedestrian bridge high above the ocean.

The Scarab was lumbering beneath the bridge, in the water.

As I watched, with an acute spike of fear, John jumped down onto the Scarab. Kelly followed. Then Fred and Linda.

Before I could follow them my strength flickered. I fell to the ground with a sharp cry of pain.

I didn't get back up.

Hopefully, they would be able to take the Scarab down without me. Even if I joined them, I'd get in the way like this.

Kurtis was at my side. "What's wrong?"

I pulled my helmet off and brushed my knotted hair out of my face. "I-I'm fine. I'm just tired."

My arms shook as I tried to push myself to my feet. I made it, but the agony lancing through my thighs was hard to ignore.

I leaned heavily against a support beam, my breathing labored.

"Just sit down, ma'am. You're gonna be alright." A marine, probably a medic, grabbed my arm and helped me settle back down. "I'm sure those SPARTANs will be back soon."

I gritted my teeth, trying to stand. "I-I have to help John."

"You have to sit down, ma'am." His voice was patient, but insistent.

I shook my head. John, Kelly, Linda, and Fred were facing the crew of an entire Scarab alone. I could help them.

What if something went wrong?

So many things could go wrong.

Behind me, I heard an explosion from within the Scarab. I turned to look as it fell to its mechanical knees.

"They did it," I whispered.

A Pelican dropped down to our level, a soldier leaning out over the ramp. "Get on, quick! We've got to go!"

Go? What about the Prophet of Regret?

I made sure there was a Pelican with Blue Team - there was - before I limped up onto the ramp. I sat heavily in a chair, my helmet hanging from my fingertips.

I pulled it on, opening a private comm. "John, are you guys okay?"

"Affirmative. We're on board a Pelican headed for the _Euclid's Anvil_. What about you?"

I collapsed with relief. "Yeah, yeah we're okay here, too."

The Pelican shot off, towards the ship above us. As soon as both Pelicans were docked I felt the ship lurch; we were in slipspace.

Why were we in slipspace?

I stumbled down the ramp and into the hangar bay, looking over to John. Blue Team was walking out of their own Pelican beside ours.

John walked up to me. "You should have rested."

"When? I-I'm fine."

The intercom crackled to life.

Commander Morton's voice echoed around the hangar bay. "Attention personnel. We have made a slipspace jump in pursuit of the Prophet of Regret. Destination unknown. We are rerouting all spare power to the cloaking devices, so cryosleep isn't an option. Be prepared to deploy. And, I shouldn't have to say this, no communications outside of the ship. They _will_ be blocked, and we _will_ find you out."

So we'd piggybacked on the Covenant's jump. That meant their ship was right above us in slipspace; if they found us they would certainly kill us.

John grabbed my arm loosely. "You should go to the medbay."

I pulled my helmet off. "I'm okay, John. Just a bit sore. Nothing I can't handle."

He didn't say anything. He disagreed, but he knew he was getting nowhere.

"I'm going to change," I finally said.

I limped out of the hangar. I could hear his footsteps behind me.

He was still brooding.

I made my way towards my room. I hadn't been in it since I teleported to Earth, right after Reach fell.

Hopefully my stuff was still there.

John split off a few hallways in for debriefing; I had a bit more leeway with when I went in for debrief.

I would have to go in soon, but I wanted a rest first.

As such, my lights were dimmed almost entirely. Just bright enough to remind me of dull, stagnant days on Eridanus II when I'd sit in bed and draw only by the sunlight.

I'd never do _that_ again. Well, I might, but Zeke wouldn't show up to pull me out of bed and force me to enjoy life. Zeke, who I'd once thought was my literal blood cousin because our dads were so close.

He was alive, but I would probably never see him again anyway. Not if ONI had anything to say about it.

I just sat on my bed for a few minutes, my helmet hanging from my limp fingers. My legs were shaking and sore, so were my arms. And my back. I was slouched over my knees, and I didn't really care to move.

I ended up laying sideways on the bed, my legs hanging off, staring at the wall until I fell asleep.

The sleep was really light, though; I wasn't sleepy, just tired. John opening the door was enough to wake me up.

I pushed myself up, ignoring my sore body, and yawned a bit. "Hi."

He nodded. His helmet was still on, so I couldn't see his face.

I pushed myself up, intent on changing into something comfortable. My legs and my back pulled with each movement.

I could feel John's eyes on me, through his visor.

"I know how hard it is," he said.

"W-what?" I paused from the laborious task of bending down over my duffle bag.

"Using your powers. It's not as easy as you say."

I knew the Librarian had activated his powers, but I didn't think he used them much.

"I...it's not super easy, but I've had more time to practice."

"You used them nonstop for hours," he insisted.

I pulled out a loose dress, too lazy to try and find a better outfit. "Y-yeah, b-but I'm fine. If I really pushed myself too far, I would have fallen asleep again."

He winced internally.

Back on the shield world, I'd had to implode the artificial sun at the planet's center. It had been so taxing that I ended up passing out, and I slept for nine days.

Nine days that John thought I would never wake up.

"Your legs are shaking," he pointed out.

I glanced down. They were.

"That's not an issue with my powers, though."

"You're too weak to be on the field."

I pulled my suit off, hiding my grimace as it forced overtaxed muscles to move once more. "Can we spend time together without arguing? That's all we ever do."

He pulled his helmet off and tucked it under his arm. "I'd rather argue, and know you were safe."

"John, I'm not going to stop." I met his gorgeous blue eyes, which were bright even in the gloom. "You already know that, don't you? I-I _can't_, not yet."

His jaw was clenched. He watched in silence as I pulled the thin white dress over my head.

I walked up to him, grabbing his left hand in both of mine. "I promise, I'll be okay. I have to do this, John."

He set his helmet down on the floor beside him and walked towards the bed. "You should rest. We'll be in slipspace for at least a few days."

I sat on the bed. "What about you? You guys were doing just as much out there."

His thumb trailed down my chin. "I'm fine."

I reached up to touch his hand. "We've had so little time together."

"So come back to my room."

I pushed myself back up, stubbornly ignoring my muscles yet again, and followed him out into the hall. Just before my door slid shut I reached out and called his helmet to me.

When it rested in my hands I released my powers from around it, only to almost drop it myself.

I wrapped my arms around it to keep from dropping it. "How heavy _is_ this thing?"

John took it from my hands, making it look like it only weighed an ounce. "Thirty pounds."

"Thirty pounds?! How is your head not flat?"

He shot me an amused look as his door slid open.

His footsteps were loud in the silent room, quieting once he sat on his bed.

I straddled his lap and wrapped my legs around his waist. His new armor had a flatter chest, which made it easier for me to press against him.

"I know you worry a lot," I murmured. "And I understand why."

He trailed a thumb down the side of my face. "You should sleep."

"Yeah." I rested my cheek on his armor. "I'll...I'll be okay, John. I promise."

I felt his lips on the top of my head. "I'll worry about that."

My eyes were closing. Now that we weren't in danger, there was nothing to keep me awake.

And I loved how safe John made me feel. I knew he could definitely protect me.

But who would protect him?

"You worry too much," I eventually mumbled.

His thumb was on my arm, running up and down. I was so happy to be back with him, I didn't even care that we were hiding underneath a Covenant ship several times our size and strength.

I placed my hand over his as I let my eyes close. "I love you, John."

I was asleep before I could even hear if he responded.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: R****eview and let me know what issues you have with Halo 5, be it story line or something else. That's where I'm really messing things up, and I'm open to suggestions :)**

**(Edited 4/19/2020)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

We were out of slipspace, which we only learned when the ship jolted. It had been two days.

Blue Team and I were immediately called to the bridge. I urged John to go ahead of me, so that I could get my suit on.

I stripped out of my dress, keeping my underclothes on, and tugged the suit up. My body was still a bit sore, but significantly less than it had been.

I would definitely be okay for a brief deployment, which I was hoping this would be.

I pulled my helmet on. John was trying to comm me. "-do you read?"

"Sorry! Yeah, I'm here."

"You're going down to the surface with a warthog after we've secured the LZ. Stay with Sergeant Johnson."

I changed my path to take me to the hangar. "Okay. Be safe down there."

"You, too." He closed the comm.

I made my way to the hangar just as a pulse hit me. The Domain. It was warning me to stay on the ship. It urged me to stay off of the ring.

So we were on a Halo.

I brushed the Domain aside; I wasn't staying on this ship when there were things to do. I felt something Forerunner out there - though it was probably just the ring - and I wasn't about to let Blue Team handle this on their own.

I climbed into the Pelican beside Sergeant Johnson, who clapped my shoulder. "Good to see you, short stuff. Better hold on to your boots, this is gonna be a bumpy ride."

He turned to face the cockpit.

"Jerry! We ready?"

A small "Yes, sir" came from the front.

"Good!" Johnson chuckled. "Let's hit the road."

He grabbed a handle despite there being an abundance of free seats. I sat down beside him, grabbing a handle on the edge of the seat as we jolted.

"You good, wonderbutt?"

I nodded, still trying to ignore the Domain. It was insistent, but so was I.

I wasn't going to let John handle this by himself.

We entered the atmosphere, the bumpy part of the journey, and ended up circling a lake near the drop point. Johnson had moved up to the cockpit to talk with the ground troops.

I couldn't see out of the ship. But I could _feel_ all of the strange and new things outside. Animals I'd never seen before, technology I couldn't hope to comprehend. Forerunner feats so amazing they were preserved on the very ring used to exterminate life.

Johnson poked his head out of the cockpit. "Alright, we're about to make the drop. See you on the other side, short stuff."

I walked to the ramp, holding a handrail on the ceiling. It lowered, and I saw that we were hovering some ten feet above the forest floor.

Johnson leaned out of the cockpit by one arm. "Go, go, go!"

I jumped out, slowing my descent with a pulse of ultrasound that rippled over the ground. I flinched as the warthog landed heavily next to me.

But nothing compared to the terror I felt in John as he walked up. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?" I thought we'd talked about this.

"You _know_ why," he growled.

I flinched; the Domain must have been warning him, too.

I shook my trepidation off. "Feel what? We have a job to do."

He sighed heavily, stepping aside so I could reach the hog. "You drive."

I nodded, climbing up into the driver's seat. He moved behind the warthog and grabbed the machine gun, while a marine climbed in next to me.

"So, where to?" I asked. "I don't- I wasn't briefed before coming down here."

"Along the edge of the lake." John nodded to a triangular structure in the middle of the water. "We need to find a way to the temple in the center. That's where Regret is."

"Got it." I shoved the warthog into first.

I was new to this warthog, and I let the clutch out too fast. It jumped into gear, shaking all of us as I moved along the edge of a steep decline.

Hopefully we wouldn't fall; I would be able to catch all of us, but it would be taxing. Especially considering how tired I still was.

"Contact!" The marine next to me unloaded a full clip into a group of Kig-Yar that we'd just happened upon.

John moved the turret, mowing through the Covenant soldiers. I shifted up to second and swerved around a boulder as he finished off the last Unggoy.

The marine crowed in victory. "Roll over and play dead!"

I pursed my lips. I understood his hatred of the Covenant as a whole, but a group of Unggoy and Kig-Yar were hardly responsible for all of the suffering they'd imposed.

Still, I kept up the pace. We all coped differently.

When we reached a steep downwards hill I downshifted to first. "John, do you see that?"

"I see it."

There was a structure, and what looked like a hardlight bridge. And several Kig-Yar, as well as a few Unggoy and a Sangheili.

"Covenant!" The marine blasted a Kig-Yar to bits.

I drove back and forth, avoiding enemy fire while trying to give them good targets. A few superheated rounds of plasma blew past, _much_ too close for comfort, but I kept us steady. Panicking would definitely get us killed.

Within a few minutes they'd killed all of the aliens. They lay around us in various states of death.

I looked away from them and pulled up beside the structure.

John climbed down from the perch. "Let's see if we can find a way across."

There was the space for a bridge, and the mechanism for a bridge, but it was disabled.

I closed my eyes, reaching out. The Domain was still warning me, but I ignored that. "There's a control panel inside the building."

I began walking towards it, despite John's warnings. I knew there was an Unggoy inside; he'd been hiding from the battle, and I wanted to handle him.

I held my hands up when he held me at gunpoint. "Hey, I won't hurt you. I promise."

John moved to shoot the Unggoy, but I shook my head and held my hand out.

The Unggoy hadn't seen John, or the marine. "Get on your knees!"

I did so, kneeling in front of the Unggoy. He was aiming the plasma pistol at my face, but his hands were shaking.

I sent out waves to calm him. Subtly, of course. If he knew what I was doing, he really would shoot me.

His gaze unfocused a bit.

"Can you put your gun down for me?" I asked in a calm voice.

It wasn't calm enough. I never should have spoken aloud.

The Unggoy blinked, shook his head, and threw off my emotional influence. A high-pitched snarl pulled at his snout.

He moved to pull the trigger. His body froze as I took control of his mind.

I stood, looking down at his frozen form. "I'm sorry."

I sent him to sleep. He collapsed, unconscious, on the floor. I couldn't bring myself to kill him.

I poked my head back out. "Okay, it's clear in here! Come on."

We walked up a ramp, and I saw a hologram of the Prophet of Regret. He was just sitting in a floating chair, gazing blankly ahead. Occasionally taking a sip from a tall, thin cup.

Behind his hologram, just below a window overlooking the bridge, was a holographic control panel.

John walked forward and activated the hardlight bridge. "Let's move."

John, the marine, and I started back down. I was hoping we had a plan to reach the middle of the lake beyond "keep moving in that direction", but John didn't hint to any sort of defined strategy.

He opened up a comm. "About those tanks."

I heard Sergeant Johnson's voice. "Roger that, on my way."

By the time we walked out to the bridge, there was a Pelican lowering itself. It hovered a few ten feet off the ground, dropping a massive Scorpion in front of us.

Johnson leaned out. "Felders, your needed back at the drop point. Good luck, Chief."

The marine, Felders, saluted and ran for the warthog we'd left.

John climbed up and opened the tank's hatch. "Will you be okay on the tread?"

"I was- I was okay in New Mombasa." I nodded.

He shut the hatch behind him. I sat on the tread in the front, on the left, and grabbed the handle. I wouldn't be of much use, since I was trying to save my strength, but I could help if I needed to.

There was something in the air in front of us, coming closer.

A Banshee fired down on us, the bolts singeing the tank's armor around me. I screamed and sent out a massive pulse. It sent me flying back into the side of the tank, but it also shoved the Banshee down into the water of the lake.

John's voice was tense over the comm. "Tawny, are you okay?"

I slid back down onto the tread and rolled my bruised shoulders. "I-I'm okay. It just scared me."

I eyed a scorch mark by my feet, a seed of dread planting firmly within my stomach.

But I shook it off, turning my attention to what was ahead.

The path was blocked on all sides by cliffs, but there were tunnels through them. Three of them, two large ones in front of us and one small one to the right. They were each square, and the larger ones had stone frames around them.

They were there intentionally.

Something was coming from the small tunnel. Before I could even see what it was - the tank was in the way - John fired off three shots.

As we rolled towards that small tunnel I saw what he'd shot; three wrecked Covenant Ghosts.

It was dark in the tunnel. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

John seemed to be fine, though, considering the Scorpion didn't even slow. It was disconcerting, being so helpless, but I trusted John.

Then I saw light ahead.

We rolled out into a big stone structure. We weren't alone; I could feel others.

I tensed. "John, there's Covenant here."

He jumped out of the tank, considering it wouldn't fit on any of the thin stone ramps leading into the structure, and pulled the rifle off of his back. "Where?"

I closed my eyes. "To the right, up a level. They don't know we're here."

"Good."

He began walking towards a ramp. His footsteps were soft on the grass, and he kept them that way on the stone, too. It was almost eerie to see him walk so silently, when I knew how loud his armor could be.

"Stay close," he murmured.

I was right behind him, floating an inch off the ground to avoid making noise.

He crept along the far wall once we'd reached the second floor. Just around the corner was a group of Unggoy, a Kig Yar, and two Sangheili.

John crouched down, rolling a grenade towards them. He turned and pinned me to the wall. I didn't understand why until the grenade exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere. His suit, which apparently had a prototype energy shield, took the brunt of the damage.

That is to say, it was fine, and it kept me from getting hit too.

He shot around the corner, gunning down the last, injured, Sangheili. John brought him down fairly quickly; he would have eventually succumbed to his injuries anyway.

We walked up to the roof of the stone building. On the shore of the lake was a proper Forerunner structure, made of metal and accented with brightly glowing blue lines.

I could look up above the distant mountains and see the massive Covenant ship that we'd followed.

"J-John?"

He turned his head to look at me.

"Isn't it weird that they're ignoring us?" I asked. "They must kn-know we're here; we're all spread out."

Our goal was to find Regret. If John and I didn't find him in this temple, hopefully someone else would find him elsewhere. We had teams all over the ring; Blue Team had even been split up to more evenly distribute their strength.

"Something else must be happening," John guessed.

I floated down the dropoff, landing on the metal floor of the Forerunner structure. The ground shook when John landed next to me.

We made our way through the Forerunner structure. On the other side was a vine-covered wall. A hologram was displaying the Prophet of Regret. He was chanting something in Sangheili, and it made me pale.

"They're going to activate the ring," I whispered.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded, biting my lip. "He's saying, 'I shall light this Holy Ring. Release its cleansing flame and burn a path into the divine beyond.'"

John looked up to the massive ship above the atmosphere. "We have to stop him."

He opened a comm.

"Commander, we have a problem."

She responded right away. "I know. We need to find the Index."

"What about the others?" John asked.

"Just as clueless to its position as you are."

John looked down, upset and thoughtful. Wracking his mind for ideas.

My head shot up. "I can look in the Domain!"

"What?" John looked down at me.

"It can show me things. I...I need to find somewhere to sit down."

I also needed to teach John how to access the Domain some time soon.

He nodded to a corner, almost obscured by vines. "I'll keep watch."

"Thanks." I sat down, closing my eyes.

I found the Domain. It was still shouting warnings at me, but I pushed them aside and slipped in.

I was in the hallway. "Warden? Warden!"

"Tawny."

I turned to face him. "I need to find the Index for Installation 05."

He gestured to a doorway. "The information you seek is within, but the Domain will not show you."

I walked up to the doorway. "It had better; without it, I'll die. So will John. Then we won't be able to fix the Domain."

"Your duties can be completed, even if you have perished. You will be just as powerful as an echo."

Echo was Forerunner for ghost, I'd learned. Ghost, soul, spirit, whatever. I had no intention of becoming one.

Thick smoke greeted me as I stepped into the doorway. "Alright, let's do this."

I closed my eyes, pushing against the fog.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Don't forget to review and lmk what issues you have with Halo 5. I'm gonna shake things up there, and you guys can potentially influence the plot!**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/19/2020)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

My eyes shot open. "The library!"

"What?" John looked down at me.

I opened a comm link, talking to both the Commander and John. "The Index is- it's in the library. It's _always_ in the library. That's where Guilty Spark took us last time."

Commander Morton took a moment to respond. Then, "I'm sending the rest of Blue Team to secure the Index. You two have a new assignment; take out the Prophet. You can _not_ let him turn on this ring."

John straightened up, even though the Commander wasn't with us. "Affirmative."

I stood. "We'll have to find a way to that temple."

He looked out over the lake, where the temple sat in the center. "We're going to have to fight our way through."

My heart sped up. Despite spending much of my recent time in the line of fire, the idea of being in so much peril terrified me.

But I shoved the fear down, leeching off of John's calm emotions. "I'm ready when you are."

We walked towards the shore. There was a floating gondola that could take us to another structure on the water. It wouldn't take us to the temple, but it would get us closer than we were.

Of course, there were Covenant in our way. Several Unggoy, four Kig-Yar, and a Sangheili.

An Unggoy opened fire. I felt cold terror seize me as a plasma round nearly hit John. John didn't seem to mind, but he was too focused on a trio of Unggoy to handle that lone one.

I threw my hand out and broke the Unggoy's neck, watching with a fierce protectiveness - and sick satisfaction - as he died.

John never paused, mowing through the rest of the Unggoy.

The Sangheili opened fire from behind a few cube-shaped stones. I reached my hand out and called his strange looking rifle to me. It was large and awkward - and heavy - in my hands.

"John, I don't- I don't know how to use this." I looked down at the rifle in my hands.

He grabbed it out of my hands and dropped his rifle. "I was out of ammo anyway."

He took out the Sangheili with two well-placed plasma shots. Then he turned his attention to the Kig-Yar several hundred feet away and on a stone bridge. We would have to go past them.

He fired on one. When his shield jerked to the side John shot him in the head. The other Kig-Yar wasn't as weak; it took two shots to move his shield. When he did, though, John delivered another swift headshot.

We walked out onto the bridge, and I did my best to keep my gaze away from the dead Kig-Yar.

John tossed a grenade into the building ahead of us. We were far away enough to avoid the explosion entirely, but the last two Kig-Yar weren't so fortunate.

We walked past their burnt bodies and out onto the dock.

The floating platform was waiting for us when we arrived. John walked up to the control panel and activated it. Everything jerked for a moment as it pushed off from the shore.

I looked down at the water, at least a hundred feet below us. "S-so what do we do if the Prophet isn't in there?"

"Then we call for a Pelican and look somewhere else."

"What if he's on the ship?" My voice was a tense whisper.

John looked up at the massive ship above us. "We'll have to find a way up."

I ran my left thumb over the bump on my hand that betrayed my ring. Hopefully the Prophet was in the temple.

I jumped suddenly as something shot past. I glanced out and saw an Unggoy on the tower, aiming its turret towards us. When we were within a hundred feet of the tower plasma fire erupted from one of its platforms.

My heart stuttered in my chest as another round nearly hit us.

John stuck out the nose of the Covenant rifle, taking down two Unggoy at a pair of turrets. I reached my hand out and pulled three Kig-Yar off of the platform, watching them fall towards the water.

Another Unggoy tried to climb onto one of the turrets. John took aim and took him down in two shots.

As the gondola docked at the tower two Kig-Yar rushed out towards us from inside. John threw another grenade and pushed me behind him. I tried to make myself small as I listened to the blast.

John fired two quick shots and took down the Kig-Yar that hadn't been caught in the blast. "Come on, we need to find a way to the temple."

I closed my eyes and reached out into the building ahead of us. "There aren't many inside."

John had grabbed my wrist, prepared to pull me along, but he turned back to face me when I spoke. Sensing another layer to my words. "And?"

"A-and I can get rid of them."

"Do it."

I forced my way into seven different minds. All of them Kig-Yar, raised by a violent society to become violent individuals. I killed all of them quickly and painlessly by shutting down their brains.

My eyes snapped open as I was forcefully returned to my own body.

"I hate doing that," I mumbled. "O-okay, they're gone."

John still kept his weapon up as we walked into the temple. There was a ramp leading to a lower level.

We made our way down. I was reaching out, but the only living things nearby were John and myself.

I was nervous, though. The Domain was screaming at me.

John was tense, too. Was the Domain bugging him as well? What was about to happen?

I pushed my nerves away, looking down the impossibly deep shaft in the center of the room. "What is this?"

"Looks like an elevator. It must connect these towers to the temple."

I grinned. "Let's get on, then."

John turned, pressing a button to call an elevator. I could hear it approaching from beneath us.

There was something inside.

"John?"

His helmet turned to look at me.

"There's something inside the elevator."

"What is it?" He was facing the empty shaft now, his gun up and ready.

"Three...Kig-Yar. A-and a Sangheili."

The elevator rose up, and sure enough three bloodthirsty Kig-Yar poured out. The Sangheili was invisible.

I could feel him, John couldn't.

So I took it upon myself to take him out.

My hands shot out and I threw the Sangheili into the wall with a pulse. His limp form rippled into sight. A quick brush against his mind revealed his newly unconscious state.

John was fighting the Kig-Yar. Even three on one, he was easily winning.

The final Kig-Yar, in a move both brave and foolish, jumped onto John's back. I made a fist, using my powers to pull the Kig-Yar off of John and snap his neck.

John turned into the elevator. "Let's move."

"Let's," I agreed, stepping into the elevator.

I reached up and wrapped my hand around three of John's fingers, the most I could fit in my hand. The Domain was screaming at me. I wanted to be as close to John as possible.

Just before the doors closed, something grabbed the armor plating on my back and jerked me out of the elevator. John slammed his fist against the clear material, cracking it, as the Sangheili rippled into view.

John was gone. The elevator was going down, down, down, into the lake.

And I was stuck with a Sangheili.

I didn't turn around to face the Sangheili. I stood there, looking at where John had been. John was alone now, off to face no doubt the Covenant stronghold on this planet without me. Without anyone. By himself.

If he died, it would be because of this Sangheili.

My invasion of the Sangheili's mind was neither subtle nor gentle. I took forceful control, bringing him to his knees before me.

Then I faced him, pulling my helmet off. I wanted him to see the face of the person who killed him.

He was still taller than me, even on his knees, but it was slightly more equal footing.

He met my eyes defiantly as I shut his mind down.

As he dropped dead behind me I opened a comm to John. "I'm okay. It was just one Sangheili. A-are you going to be alright on your own?"

I could practically hear his relief. "I'll be fine. Go back to the drop point and call for evac; I'll meet you soon."

"Are you sure? I could- I can try to fly across to the temple."

"It's too risky," he insisted. "Have Sergeant Johnson pick you up."

I started for the gondola, walking up the ramp and out of the building. "Please comm if you need help."

His voice was soft. "I will."

He left the comm.

I sighed, walking out into the sun. The gondola was still there, empty and waiting.

A quick press of the control panel had me starting across the water. I sat on the edge of the gondola, my feet dangling below, and looked down at the water.

John was down there somewhere.

My gaze rose to the temple. No doubt it was full of all manner of Covenant warrior, and John was facing them alone.

I couldn't bear the thought of him dying.

Turns out, I had more immediate problems. Someone was behind me.

I turned, my eyes wide, to see a Sangheili standing there. I clambered to my feet, prepared to throw my arms out and shove him off of the gondola.

Before I could react he brought his rifle around, hitting my head with the butt.

Everything went black.

**oOOOo**

My head hurt. I vaguely wondered how many times I would wake up with a sore head.

When my eyes opened I realized I had bigger problems than a headache.

I was inside a Covenant brig. The walls were round, in a dark purple. There was an energy shield keeping me within a small and barren room.

I had been captured. Again.

There was a voice outside my cell, commanding the Unggoy I saw running about. "**Set up the monitors! We must discover this human's secret, the Hierarchs demand it!"**

I sat up, looking around. Sure enough there were several different kinds of lenses outside my cell, pointed at me. What would they measure?

My powers, I realized.

What would happen if they did figure out how I use my powers? Would they be able to build something to stop me?

A Sangheili walked up. "You have awakened."

I didn't say anything. I knew I was the only one captured; I couldn't feel any other humans in the brig with me. Nobody else was at risk; if I messed up I would pay the price in full. There was no one to dangle over my head.

It took a bit of weight from my shoulders.

The Sangheili turned to two Unggoy. "**Bring me its armor."**

I didn't react outwardly, though I'm sure I was gobsmacked beneath my helmet. I quickly schooled my expression; they didn't know I understood Sangheili. It gave me an advantage, one I was going to have to play for all it was worth.

The Unggoy walked in as the energy shield was disabled. One of them ripped my helmet off while the other tugged at a plate on my stomach.

I recoiled. "Stop it!"

"**_Now_, Unggoy. We must determine whether its abilities lie in the armor, or the body."**

The Unggoy realized that the thin armor plating was connected to the bodysuit. He grabbed the neck, pulling it down. I was left in a sports bra and my briefs. I cowered into the corner, wrapping my arms around my legs.

The two aliens walked out, and the energy shield was put back up.

The Sangheili was staring at me. He was talking, and though he addressed me I got the feeling he didn't mean for me to hear or understand him. "**Your secrets will spill with your blood, little human."**

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Hi guys! I'm gonna warn you, things get really dark in the next chapter. As in, trigger warning at the beginning and a chapter summary for the squeamish at the end kinda dark. It was hard to write, and it's going to be hard to read. But, you know, character development.**

**Sorry in advance :/**

**(Edited 1/1/2020)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

**(MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING: TORTURE. SUMMARY AT THE END OF CHAPTER, SO PLEASE SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT. PLEASE.)**

I'd been in the brig for awhile. How long? I didn't know.

I'd slept twice, so maybe two days? Who knew; my sleep schedule was erratic.

Maybe it had only been one day. Maybe it had been three. I had no way of knowing.

I was watching a Brute pace outside my cell. I'd never seen one before; they were terrifying. This one was at least eight feet tall, dwarfing even John, and had a malicious glint in his eyes.

I was _distinctly _aware of the fact that he could probably break my bones with a single finger. I barely reached his waist, and his arms were thicker than my torso. And without my powers - I could _not_ let the Covenant study them - I was left with nothing but my weak body.

An Unggoy walked up, a oval tray in his hand. He lowered my shield and dropped the vaguely edible-looking food on the floor. I watched his back as he walked away.

I hadn't eaten since I arrived. I was starving, but I didn't trust them.

And since I was abstaining from my powers, hoping they wouldn't be able to find them out, I was restricted to what any normal human could do.

For me, that wasn't much.

"**I will hear no more arguments. We have learned nothing from the armor, so the secrets lie in the human. Do you wish for me to tell the Hierarchs that you delayed?"**

There were two Sangheili approaching.

"**No,** **Shipmaster,"** said the second Sangheili. **"My only concern is the human's fragile state. The body may not hold up under interrogation techniques."**

They walked into sight. The head prison guard, and an ornately armored Sangheili I'd never seen before.

The guard, on his superior's signal, disabled the energy shield. When the high-ranking Sangheili was inside the cell, the guard reactivated it.

The leader, the Shipmaster, looked down at me with a carnivorous eye. "You are the human that has caused much stir in my soldiers."

I didn't say anything. I didn't even look at him. My gaze was ahead.

"Yet I am told your body is more weak than other humans'."

He was in front of me, trying to get me to look him in the eyes. I didn't. My eyes fell on his legs; I wasn't even up to his knee in my position on the floor.

"I didn't know humans could be _weaker._" His voice was full of acute distaste.

He stopped pacing around the cell, looking down at me from the side.

"Speak, human."

"What should I say? You're-you're right." My heart was beating out of my chest. He was _huge_, and definitely evenly matched with John.

If he chose to get aggressive I wouldn't stand a chance.

He started pacing around me again. His footsteps shook the ground. I fought to keep my breathing under control; he could break my body so easily. Accidentally.

"I can smell your fear."

My arms tightened around my legs. He was right next to me. I could reach out and touch him. _He_ could reach out and touch _me_.

He knelt down, grabbing my chin between a finger and a thumb. His hand was bigger than my entire torso. "Your secrets will not remain so for much longer."

I met his eyes. I was terrified, but I wouldn't back down. They would _not_ discover my powers. I wouldn't let it happen.

He snarled loosely, his four bottom jaws hanging down to reveal rows and rows of sharp teeth. My nose wrinkled and I glared up at him. He wanted to see my fear, and I refused to give him the pleasure.

"Y-you won't kill me," I stuttered. "You need me."

He chuckled mirthlessly, dropping my chin. "We need information, little human. You are merely a resource."

He was in front of me suddenly, crouching on the floor with his jaws spread wide. An unholy shriek tore out of his mouth as he lunged for me with those unnatural teeth. I screamed, cowering into myself.

Nothing happened.

I bit down a whimper and looked up. He was standing. His eyes were cold. He'd meant to scare me into using my powers.

"You will succumb eventually," he insisted.

My chest heaved as I looked up at him. "You-you'd be surprised."

He snarled once more before stalking out of the cell. I was left alone.

Not truly alone.

The Brute guard was still outside. There was a pack of Kig Yar on the other end of the brig. And the Domain was ever present in the back of my mind.

It brushed against me. I didn't respond - I dare not respond. What if that was something the monitors could detect? Then they would be able to copy or, god forbid, counteract my powers. I couldn't let that happen.

No matter what they did to me, I could not let them discover the secrets of my abilities.

**oOOOo**

The Brute deactivated the shield and grabbed my wrists. Both of them. His hand was massive, almost as big as my entire torso, and it crushed my wrists together. Still, I didn't flinch.

The guard and Shipmaster were behind me as the Brute dragged me towards the back of the brig.

The Brute lifted me up by one arm - which was more painful than I expected - and it was trapped by a floating cuff of energy. He lifted my other hand into the second one.

My feet barely brushed the ground. I had to point my toes almost entirely to take the weight off of my shoulders. That strained my legs, but not doing it strained my shoulders.

The prison guard walked up to me.

I snarled up at him. There was a pack of Kig-Yar imprisoned across the way from my cell; I was leeching off of their savage emotions to keep myself from mentally breaking under the stress of imprisonment.

The prison guard growled, jerking towards me in an attempt to intimidate me. I didn't flinch; he wasn't serious.

He snorted in dark amusement as he walked over to a holographic control panel. I tried to pull my wrists free, but they were stuck fast.

I felt my heart speed up in fear. "Wha-what is this?"

He pressed a button and pain shot through my body. My muscles seized as the electricity rushed through my body. The arcs felt like hard leather beating my skin, all over my body, both hot and cold. A choked scream tore out of my mouth.

The electricity, and the pain, refused to let up. I screamed, arching my back in a fruitless attempt to _get away _from the agony.

Still, I wouldn't use my powers. The pain controlled my body, I was writhing desperately in the air, but it did not control my mind. I'd experienced worse pain, and nothing could compare to it. Not even this.

I had to keep telling myself that.

After what felt like forever the electricity stopped. I hung limp by my arms, panting. Everything felt raw, like I'd been slapped. The air of the brig was cold on my skin, and I couldn't tell if it was helping or hurting the pain.

I was smoking. My body was smoking. It lifted off of my body in delicate swirls, disturbingly beautiful for the circumstances.

My eyes were wide. "What? You're going to-to torture it out of me?"

The Shipmaster strolled up, his grey eyes full of sick delight. "If we must. Your weak body will soon demand action."

I met his gaze, my lip curling, and panted, "Not as soon as you'd hope."

"Your mind is strong, but your body is like that of an infant. It will be your downfall."

My chest drew desperate gulps of air. "Kiss it, dumbass."

He turned back around, wrapping his hand around my neck. "It is not I who is dumb."

I stopped trying to breath; he wouldn't get the satisfaction of hearing me choke.

He kept his hand around my throat, his eyes narrowed.

My chest ached.

Would he really choke me to death?

He loosened his grip slightly, and I found myself drawing in a massive breath. He immediately renewed the vice around my throat.

I choked, a desperate groan cracking through my lips. He seemed to smirk, almost, and released me.

"Put her back in her cell." He shot me a glare. "**We want information, not a body."**

The Brute disabled my restraints and dragged me back into my cell.

I curled up in the corner, ignoring the acute pain that screamed from my skin when it touched the cold metal walls. Tears leaked out onto my cheeks, even though I tried to hide them.

I'd been through worse.

I couldn't break under their pressure.

I'd survived worse pain than this. I would survive this, too.

God, I wished I was with John. Safe on the ship, or even on the ring world.

Actually, I would be willing to be anywhere with him. Anywhere but here. I doubted even he could escape this place.

Was I really going to die here?

**oOOOo**

I flinched as the Shipmaster growled. "**Again."**

I'd been in the bowels of the ship for much longer than I thought I'd survive. I didn't know how long, but at least a few weeks. A month, maybe.

The Shipmaster was growing impatient. He was giving me less time between interrogation sessions. Only a few days, maybe less. It was either the electricity, or an Unggoy. The Unggoy was fairly new; he'd been using him for less than a week by my estimates.

He must have figured, I was similar in height to the Unggoy. They couldn't hurt me that badly, right?

Wrong.

They were also stronger than me, and the hard exoskeletons on their fists shook my bones.

I watched in slow motion as the Unggoy brought his fists back down on my body. Something in my ribs twinged and I cried out, a tight groan trailing out of my mouth.

"Tell me! It is only so long until your body breaks, and then your mind will follow." The Shipmaster looked down at me with eyes devoid of sympathy.

I was laying on the floor. I didn't have the energy to say much of anything. My ribs screamed every time I inhaled.

If I had the strength to look down at myself, not that I did, I would undoubtedly have seen a myriad of bruises all over my body. The Unggoy was practically emotionless, beating me at his master's whims.

"Is it another augmentation? Have you implanted the Holy Ones' relics into yourself?" The Shipmaster was desperate to crack this case.

I felt my eyes closing.

"Speak!" His voice was an unhinged roar that sent my heart into another fit. "**Again, Unggoy!"**

I moaned as the Unggoy once again hit my body. He wasn't nearly using all of his strength, or I would have died already.

Something was definitely wrong with my ribs. Tears tracked down my grimy face, though I didn't have the strength to sob.

"Wasting my time is not wise." The Sangheili stormed out of the cell with the Unggoy behind him.

Thank god, he was gone.

My breathing was fast and shallow. Deep breaths made something in my chest grind together, and I didn't fancy that agony.

I stared up at the ceiling, wondering how much longer this would go on before I died. I'd already been in here for so long…

Death didn't sound so horrible. An eternity in the Domain. Would it be that bad?

"I am impressed with your strength. I had thought you would be dead."

My eyes flicked over to the prison guard, who was standing by the energy barrier.

"Though that may still be true, soon."

He walked away.

I hoped he was right.

I heard two Sangheili walking past. "**The Prophet of Truth decreed that it was 'Vadamee's fault, not Regret's, that led them to the human colony. Had he not erred, the Prophets would still be with us and we would be on our Great Journey."**

"**Perhaps 'Vadamee was overzealous in his pursuit of the artifact, but even he could not have foretold the human presence."** The other voice sounded a bit uncertain.

"**You are a fool, Llas. The coordinates were discovered in a human database. The humans had already discovered the artifact on that planet. Of course they would colonize it, it is their nature."**

I'd heard them before. They were the gossips of the prison guards. This 'Vadamee, from what I'd heard, had recently been appointed Fleetmaster. He led the attack on Earth, following coordinates they'd stolen from Reach.

They had no idea that humanity was even _on_ Earth.

Their unprepared state is why Earth still stands, and the Prophets of Regret and Mercy were dead. I felt some sick satisfaction upon learning that John had succeeded in our mission.

The Covenant still had no idea that Earth was our homeworld, either.

I suppose that was good. The Covenant had a habit of skipping over worlds they deemed unimportant. No doubt they planned to come back and mop them up later. But maybe they would leave Earth alone, for now.

The knowledge that the Covenant was growing desperate comforted me. I would probably die here, but maybe I would be one of the last people to die at the hands of the Covenant.

That thought brought a smile to my face as I felt my strength fading again.

I fell asleep, though it was hard to tell if it was true sleep or passing out. At this point either one would make sense.

**oOOOo**

I was being picked up. My right elbow twinged, followed by my ribs. Everywhere hurt, in some way, but those were the worst. And when this Brute put me in the energy cuffs I knew my shoulders would also start complaining.

I was hunched over as I walked, and my eyes fell on my stomach. It was heavily bruised, a particularly nasty sight on my left ribs that was the source of my agony. There were older, yellow bruises too. My arms were bruised. My legs were bruised.

The prison guard had taken to cutting my skin. They were small, shallow cuts, but they weren't healing well. And they were exclusively in painful target areas. Namely my stomach, ribs, and the palms of my hands.

My ribs were still bleeding sluggishly, the wounds never fully allowed to close. I was beat too often for that to happen.

When I was thrown into the cuffs my left shoulder popped. I bit down on my lip, trying desperately to take some of the weight off of my arms. My legs shook with the effort. It was no use, anyway.

As soon as the prison guard activated the electricity, the great white arcs sapped any of my strength. I barely had the energy to scream, if you could even call it screaming at this point. It was more a pained gasping.

The electricity felt like it was hitting my skin with the strength of ten men. Despite my absolute exhaustion, my back still arched. Sweaty, oily hair fell into my face as I collapsed.

That was quicker than yesterday. They'd taken to running the electricity until I went limp. It had only been a few seconds this time.

I was getting weaker.

The prison guard walked up. "Will you speak now, human?"

I looked up at him with sunken eyes. He was a most gleeful tormentor.

I gathered a huge glob of saliva and spit it out onto his foot.

His hand came up, knocking my head to the side. I saw stars. I saw stars so often, but this was the first time I saw them while I was standing still.

Something dug into my ribs, just below the painful fracture. I gasped, choking a bit on my air. His knife was embedded in my skin. Blood gushed out, running down my body.

It was a very short knife, and it went barely an inch into my skin. But it had gone right between two of my ribs. It could cause any number of fatal problems there.

In his anger the prison guard had made a mistake, and that was giving me such a serious wound. I would die soon, now, and they would be none the wiser to my abilities.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

The Sangheili growled, turning his back to me. "**Get her medical treatment. We need her alive."**

I was left in the cuffs, my shoulders begging for a release. A bored-looking pair of Brutes were at the entrance to the brig, their eyes occasionally flicking over to me. They looked away each time, still apathetic and full of bored disinterest.

I was getting tired.

A strange floating creature meandered into the brig. It looked almost like a turtle, with six eyes, glowing blue skin, and tentacles in the place of fins.

He was disturbingly neutral as he approached me, pulling out medical supplies. He had a giant air bladder, what resembled an ulcerated turtle shell, that kept him afloat.

When he touched me I felt a surge of protectiveness and anger overtake him. "_Forerunner."_

He'd spoken directly into my mind.

My eyes widened fractionally as his air bladder seemed to ripple, and turned a shade of red. Once again in my mind, he muttered, "_Fix."_

He pressed gauze to the deep wound. I hissed as the pressure hurt the bruises on my ribs. My vision was getting blurry.

He put a wrap over the gauze, securing it around my body with his tentacles. He was sentient, I could feel it, but it was slightly different. More mechanical. Like an AI, but even less human.

What was it?

Before I could ask my vision faded completely.

**oOOOo**

Pain. The worst pain I'd ever felt, including the agony that used to rip my stomach.

I woke up screaming, desperately trying to sit up. I couldn't, something was holding me down.

The Shipmaster.

His massive foot was on my left arm, bearing down on it slowly. The bones were starting to crack under the pressure. I screamed again, a wild scream that I'd never heard before. Tears tracked down my face as my entire body seized.

I had to get out from under him he was _crushing my arm_.

I tugged desperately at my arm, but it only served to make the pain worse.

"No, please don't- stop! Stop! _Please_." I was rambling. Pleading.

_This_ was the worst pain I'd ever felt.

"Then reveal your secrets, human."

I shook my head, crying desperately. I couldn't do that. I couldn't.

I cried out again, my voice unable to support itself at the intensity. I howled as something in my arm shattered. I could feel each individual fragment as it splintered.

"_No_!" My voice turned into a scream of unbearable agony.

My mind went blank. I was aware of the pain, it was steadily getting worse, but I was no longer affected by it.

The Domain was there.

An urge.

A person; John.

John. I would do anything to see him again. _Anything_.

My body fell numb as it dispersed into trillions of blue specks.

**oOOOOo**

**Chapter Summary: Tawny is kidnapped by the Covenant and tortured over the course of a month. They want to find the source of her powers, so that they can counteract them. They have lenses trained on her at all times. So, she abstains from her powers to keep their secrets out of Covenant hands.**

**The torture gradually becomes more frequent and more painful. Tawny only keeps herself from breaking by listening to the conversations of a few Sangheili guards, who accidentally reveal to her that the Prophets of Regret and Mercy are dead, and that one Thel 'Vadamee is now an Arbiter. The fact that the Covenant is crumbling seems to make her feel better.**

**Eventually, she pisses off the prison guard. He and the Shipmaster are both on edge, since by that point they'd had her for a month and gotten nowhere with her. In his rage, the prison guard stabs her between two of her left ribs. A potentially fatal wound. Tawny is kind of glad, and hopes it will kill her.**

**It doesn't kill her, mainly because they send an Engineer to help bandage the wound. Tawny does, however, pass out from blood loss.**

**She wakes up in pain, since the Shipmaster is standing on her left arm with one foot and is slowly bearing down. For those of you who don't know, Sangheili feet are bigger than her torso. They're about as big as a SPARTAN's torso, so do with that what you will.**

**Anyway, the Domain senses Tawny's body going into shock and decides it's had enough of this. So it activated the one power she almost never uses; her teleportation. She disappears into trillions of little blue specks, finally homeward bound.**

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I wanted to make this seem longer, maybe over the course of a few chapters. But I just couldn't do it. I hate putting her through this at all; I can barely stand to write one chapter of it, honestly.**

**But it must be done.**

**Once again, so sorry :(**

**Also! The Engineer is _not_ a Lifeworker Huragok. That's why Tawny is still injured. He tried to patch her up, but he doesn't understand bodies as well as he understands machines.**

**(Edited 4/19/2020)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

I was in the air. Warm, humid air. It was loud and echo-y.

I crashed into the ground. Something in my right leg cracked and I groaned, but it could have hurt a lot worse. My arm, for example, was shrieking with all-encompassing agony.

"Tawny?"

My eyes fluttered open. "Jo-hn," my voice broke.

He was kneeling over me.

I was still in pain, it was really bad, but I managed to hold onto consciousness.

I was with John. John was here. Everything was alright.

There was a crowd of people. They were all sweaty, though I doubted any of them smelled worse than me.

I was in a gym. It was full of humans. I wasn't on the Covenant ship anymore.

John picked me up. A strangled scream tore out of my mouth as the movement upset my arm.

His eyes were dark and full of terror - I could feel his fear, too - as he all but ran out of the gym. "What happened?"

I didn't have the strength to talk. I was too focused on the mess that was my left arm; it was dangling loosely, curved unnaturally. A choked groan filtered through my gritted teeth.

We were in a sterile environment. John was rushed to put me on a cold bed. I wanted him to keep holding me.

There was someone over me. They weren't John. I wanted John.

He had a way to make everything right.

The medic stuck something in my elbow, and the pain dulled.

My body relaxed fractionally. "John?"

"I'm here." I could see him in the corner of my eye, his face a hard mask.

My eyelids grew heavy again.

No, I wanted to stay with John.

My struggle was short-lived.

**oOOOo**

I was in the halls of the Domain. I could have cried with relief; the pain was gone. Fully gone.

I hadn't entered the Domain, though. How was I here?

"Warden?"

He was behind me then. "Tawny."

"Why am I here?" I tugged on my dress. "_How_ am I here?"

He looked down at me. "There is a distinct likelihood that you are about to perish."

"I- _what_? I'm dying?"

He nodded once.

"No, I-I can't die yet. What about John?" I'd spent the past forever wanting to die, but now that I was away from the pain and fear I didn't. I wanted to wake up and stay with John.

The Warden stepped aside. John was behind him.

When he saw me he rushed forward. "Tawny, what happened?"

His hands were cupping my face, making sure I was really there.

He wasn't as tall in the Domain. He didn't have any scars, surgical or otherwise. As if he'd never gone through augmentations. Likewise, I didn't have my stoma here. I didn't need it; I was healthy.

"John." My hands cupped his face, making sure he was really with me.

I looked up at the Warden.

"I'm staying with him." My voice was firm.

But there were tears in my eyes.

John wrapped his arms around me. He was still taller than me, but not nearly so tall as to dwarf me.

I rested my head on his shoulder, tears leaking out onto the fabric, and whispered, "I thought I'd never see you again."

His arms were tight around me. "You never reported to the LZ. What happened?"

I bit my lip. "There was a Sangheili hiding on the gondola. I thought we'd gotten everyone, I don't understand how I didn't noticed him."

"Why didn't you escape?"

"I couldn't." My chest heaved. I would _not_ cry, not again. "They had scanners. They wanted to see how I used my powers; I _couldn't_ show them."

His chin was resting firmly on my head. "I thought you died."

"I thought I was going to," I admitted quietly.

Then I straightened up.

"What happened after I left?" I fought to keep my voice even.

The Warden stepped forward. "Perhaps it would be simpler to show you."

The Domain was calling me.

I stepped towards the doorway as if in a trance, gazing inside. I saw many things.

John, killing Regret. Getting fired on by a massive beam from a Covenant ship. Jumping into the lake to save himself.

Some sort of tentacle latching onto him, pulling him into the underground honeycomb of the ring world. He was there, along with the rest of Blue Team.

I shuddered as I realized what was holding them; the Gravemind. A massive Flood form with knowledge older than the Domain itself.

John and Kelly were in a Covenant ship. No...a city. A massive spatial city; High Charity.

Fred and Linda were in the control room for the ring world.

They were going after the Index. The Gravemind was helping them. Helping them stay alive so that he stood a chance of feasting upon them later.

The Index escaped John and Kelly. They had a new job; keep the Prophets from Earth.

Fred and Linda destroyed the Index and freed Commander Morton and Sergeant Johnson from the Brutes.

The Flood infiltrated High Charity. The Flood killed the Prophet of Mercy.

But all of the Halos were online and ready for remote activation from the Ark.

I saw...someone. A Sangheili. Donning golden armor, a sign of strength and a sign of shame. It didn't cover the brand on his skin.

An Arbiter.

He would help us stop the Halo Array.

**oOOOo**

Everything hurt. My eyes opened, and I winced at the harsh medical lighting. I wasn't...in the brig?

I wasn't in the brig.

Sharp architecture and white walls contrasted severely with the curved, purple walls of the brig.

I couldn't move my left arm. I couldn't...feel my left arm. I tried to move my fingers, preparing for agony, but nothing happened.

_Nothing_ happened.

My left arm was gone.

I looked around, ignoring the pain the bright lights caused me. John, I needed to see John. He would make everything okay.

He was there, beside my bed. Sitting in a chair. He was staring off into the distance. My heart jumped when I saw him.

"John," I whispered.

"Tawny." He left the chair, kneeling beside my bed. "You're awake."

I brought my right hand up, ignoring the pain, to reach for him.

He took my hand, enclosing it in his own and bringing it back down. "Don't move."

I closed my eyes as my ribs twinged. I couldn't tell if it was the stab wound or the fracture.

"My arm..." I whispered.

"What happened? You weren't on High Charity."

High Charity was the Covenant city he and Kelly had raided.

I blinked a bit, trying to clear my thoughts. "I was on a ship."

"You almost died."

A tired smile rose to my lips. "Wouldn't be the first time."

His eyes darkened. "What did they do to you?"

He'd let go of my hand. I turned my palm to face me, counting three ugly wounds across it. It had some sort of balm on it that helped take the edge off the pain.

"They wanted to find out how I do what I do," I finally said. "I couldn't use my powers at all. When I didn't use my powers...they tried to force me."

John's jaw was tight.

"I didn't give in. I'm stronger than them."

"Your entire left arm was shattered. They had to remove it." His rage on my behalf was barely contained.

I took another deep breath. It hurt, but it was doable. I hadn't been able to draw a breath in before.

"The Shipmaster got impatient," I murmured.

A medic walked in. "Good, you're awake. I need to redress your lacerations."

He walked closer and I flinched away from him.

"Are you alright with the Master Chief staying here?" he asked.

I nodded desperately. "Please don't make him leave."

"Alright, miss, I won't."

His hands reached for me and I braced myself for a hit I knew wasn't coming. He glanced up at me before pulling the hospital gown up. My stomach was a mess, covered in bruises and small cuts.

I could feel John's anger and revulsion growing.

"Hey," I looked up at him, "I'm okay. I've had worse."

He looked down at me.

"I mean, i-it didn't look this bad. But it hurt worse. It's why I have that." I nodded at the stoma.

There was a new bag on it; it had been about a month since it had been changed. It _could_ go that long, as long as I kept it emptied regularly, but it wasn't good for the stoma or for me.

The medic unwrapped my ribs, gently removing the blood-covered gauze. "We had to drain excess fluids building up near your lungs. In doing so we almost fractured a weakened rib. It's a miracle you're alive, miss."

It's like he was trying to piss John off. I knew he was trying to keep me informed, but Jesus.

So I changed the subject. "What day is it?"

"July twenty first," the medic said. "You arrived yesterday, the Covenant had you for one month and five days."

I'd missed my birthday. I was nineteen now.

Wow, that was weird to think about.

"Where am I?"

"The New Mombasa Military Base."

"On Earth?"

"On Earth." The medic nodded.

I felt my eyes closing again. I shook myself. "And I- what about my arm?"

"With your permission, we can grow a replacement and transplant it in a few months' time. We'll need to take DNA samples for the cloning process."

"Can we do that?"

The medic nodded, returning his attention to my battered stomach.

I glanced up at John as he began reapplying the ointment. "I want to be with you."

John placed one of his hands over mine. "I won't leave."

The medic picked up my hand and started putting on the cream. I sucked in a breath as the freshly applied balm stung the cuts.

"I'm sorry I let myself get captured." I looked down.

"You need to save your strength," John said.

I felt my eyes closing again. I forced them open, blinking heavily. "I guess."

The medic pulled my gown back down. "You should rest, miss."

He walked out.

John looked down at me. "He's right, you should rest."

"I don't want something to happen again." My voice was a mumble. "Something always happens."

"I won't let anything happen."

His hand was warm over mine. I found myself drifting off to sleep despite myself.

**oOOOo**

Five days later I was released. A medic wheeled me into my room, where I was left to my own devices. I couldn't even reach the control panel to turn the lights on.

I stared at myself in the thin mirror. I looked awful. Scrawny, bruised, weak. I had a massive brace on my right elbow and a wrap around the stump of my left arm. Another cast on my right leg. Beneath the hospital gown, bindings over the cut in my ribs.

Which were still fractured.

I couldn't even use a regular wheelchair; they'd given me an electric one.

I looked down at my wrist, and my nose wrinkled at the faint purple marks. They looked like little starbursts where the electricity had touched me. They were very dark along where the binders had been, fading entirely about halfway up my arm. They covered my hand too.

The doctors assure me they would go away in time.

Some of the scars wouldn't. Especially the one over my ribs. And the cuts on my palm. Those would stay.

I felt so helpless, and I hated it. I _wasn't_ a cripple.

But I was.

I knew I could have used my powers to move myself around, but the idea made my stomach turn.

I was still terrified to use my powers.

The door slid open. I looked up, seeing John in the mirror.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, looking down. I didn't trust my voice.

He knelt in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I bit my lip to try and keep the tears down. "Not really."

"Can I hold you?"

"Please-" My voice broke and I felt tears well up in my eyes.

He wrapped one hand under my back, the other under my thighs, and picked me up. I wrapped my right arm around him, burying my face in his shoulder.

We were finally together again. Finally. And I would do anything to keep it that way.

He settled on the bed, readjusting me so that I lay across his lap with my back against the wall. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I was still fighting back tears.

"If I was paying attention, we never would have been separated."

I rested my head against John's chest. My eyes closed in contentment. He didn't have his armor on, and the shirt he wore was soft against my bruised cheek.

"It wasn't your fault." I let out a breath. "_I_ should have been paying more attention."

He ran his thumb down the left side of my face. The right side was swollen from where the prison guard had hit me. But I had the last laugh. I was free, and I never did break.

As far as I knew, the teleportation was something completely different from my other powers. Even if they found a way to limit that ability, which I'd forgotten about entirely, they wouldn't have a clue about the others.

"I won, though."

John looked down at me.

"They never did get me to crack. He said I would, but he was wrong." My voice was thick with unshed tears.

"Tawny, I love you."

My eyes shot up. He was saying that now, for the first time, like this? While I looked like a walking bruise?

He meant it, though. I could feel his conviction.

I rested my head against his chest, ignoring the pain that blossomed along my bruised cheek. The tears finally spilled over. "I love you, too."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Here's another chapter, since some of you may have only had a summary last chapter. A bit happier, ****circumstantially****, but I'm a sucker for angst.**

**Love y'all :)**

**(Edited 4/19/2020)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

I pulled out my communicator, resting it on the desk in front of me.

Blue Team had been stationed at the New Mombasa base for the foreseeable future, fending off rogue Covie squads popping up all over the continent. They were currently deployed to South Sudan, but they were supposed to be back soon.

I'd moved back into John's room almost immediately. Even if he wasn't there often, I preferred his room to mine.

I could tell that none of the officers liked it, but they didn't say anything. They could have, easily, but most people had heard of John's heroics. And the officers knew what his childhood had been like.

So they left us be, which was a huge relief.

I found a series of messages from Davidson. Professor Anders had kept my comm safe, thank goodness, so I could still reach him.

I pulled up the first message, from a few days before we reached Installation 05. He must have sent it while we were in the communications lockdown.

"Hey, _caramela_. The Grunt got really happy when I mentioned you. So did Phong. Oh, Petty Officer Kirk says 'hi'. You remember him, right? Way back, when you first arrived on the _Spirit_? He's Petty Officer Second Class now."

He looked back as someone said something to him. He was in the mess hall, and it looked busy.

"Anyway, we're headed to Earth. We should be there in," he hummed, "about three months. They're talking about writing up a contract with Dadip, since he's willing to cooperate, but there is a language barrier. Maybe you can help with that."

He looked up at the camera for a second. His black eyes were serious and genuine.

"I miss you, _porcelana_. I know something's about to happen on Earth. I don't know what, maybe you do, but word gets around. Be safe, okay?"

The video stopped.

There was another one from a week later. I was with the Covenant by this point.

"Hey, are you okay? I know you're probably just not able to talk, but I get worried sometimes." He seemed to shake himself. "Just let me know when you get this."

One more, from a few days before I escaped.

"I'm worried about you, _chiquilla_. It's been more than a month. What's happening? Comm me back when you get this, please."

I drummed my fingers on the tabletop. It had been a week since I was released, and the ugly purple starbursts had faded to red. The cuts on my palm had started to heal up, too. My stomach was looking better.

That was just the surface, too, of what had happened to me. My ribs, my leg, my _arm_.

Jesus, when I made a list I began to realize how bad off I'd been.

I'd kind of been blocking it out.

I pulled up the recorder.

A smile rose to my face, somehow. "Hey, Bradley. I'm sorry I haven't been able to comm. We followed a Covenant ship to another ring world, and by follow I mean we piggybacked their jump, so we couldn't comm."

I pushed on the underside of my ring with my thumb. Without my left arm, I couldn't twist it around my finger like I used to.

"I got captured. But...but John killed the Prophet of Regret and the Prophet of Mercy, so that's good." I swallowed. "I-I...I wasn't able to comm...because the Covenant had me for about a month."

A small, bitter grin tugged at my mouth. Hopefully he wouldn't see it's sourness.

"They didn't get anything from me, though. Not for lack of trying. Look," I picked up my left shoulder, showing off my stump, "a Sangheili shattered my arm. A-among other things."

My chest felt hollow and sharp inside. I pushed it down.

"But I'm okay now. We're at the New Mombasa base, so-so hopefully that's where you'll be. See you in, what, two weeks? Bye!"

I sent the video and pushed myself to my feet. I tucked my comm into the front pocket of my overalls. Beneath them was a blue tank top.

Blue Team was in South Sudan, hunting down a Covenant excavation team. They were popping up more and more. The higher ups theorized that they were looking for something, and they would glass Earth after they found it.

So, obviously, we had to keep that from happening.

But I wouldn't be seeing action for awhile. I still had a month or two until my leg and ribs healed, and about that time my new arm would be done.

Then six months of physical therapy to relearn how to use it.

I wasn't looking forward to it. But I wanted my arm back, and the military was paying all the medical bills. I would be a fool to turn that down.

The halls were busy, growing in busyness as I got closer to the commons room. The mess hall was absolutely full, considering it was right in the middle of the lunch rush. I shied away from the noise.

I grabbed a tray of rice and chicken and retreated. I liked to eat on the tarmac, watching the Pelicans come and go. I stood out wherever I went, but here at least everyone was too busy to stare.

I sat on a cement barrier, kicking my left leg against it.

My right leg was in a thick cast below the knee. They'd offered me crutches, or a wheelchair, but without both arms those both seemed like a bit of a hassle. And I hated the electric wheelchair; it was so _slow_.

But I was fine. It was a small fracture, anyways.

The tarmac was really crowded. The Covenant certainly had been keeping us busy, that was for sure. Teams of soldiers, scientists, and all other manner of occupation were being ferried back and forth from the base to sights of recent skirmishes.

A Pelican landed on the other end of the tarmac. My heart sped up as the ramp lowered. Wishful thinking bolstered me as I pushed myself halfway to my feet.

Fred was the first one out, confirming that it was Blue Team.

I swallowed a mouthful of rice and held my hand up, waving to him. He saw me as Kelly and Linda walked out and raised his hand in greeting.

I set my tray down on the barrier and walked over just in time to see John walk out. My heart hiccuped in my chest; I was still in shock that I was with him.

That was _John_, my John. Every time I saw him, or even thought about him, my heart was gripped with intense adoration.

He was busy, though, talking to an officer. So I ran up and hugged Kelly. My stump reached out, too; I was still unused to having only one arm.

She placed a hand on my head. "Hey, Tawny."

I looked up at her. She didn't seem injured.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

Fred clapped my shoulder. "Not bad. Mopped up a few Covies for the Lieutenant."

"I'm glad you're okay."

Linda shouldered her rifle. "Me, too. You been good?"

A smile tugged at my lips. She didn't talk to me much, so it was exciting when she did. "Yeah, I've been good."

John was behind me, his hand on the small of my back. The difference between us was so great that he could almost wrap his fingertips _around _the back of my waist.

I turned around, grabbing his hand. "Are you guys hungry?"

Kelly pulled her helmet off. "Always."

That was that. We made our way back to the mess hall. I stopped at the barrier to grab my tray, momentarily lamenting the fact that I couldn't carry it and hold John's hand at the same time.

So I walked as close to him as I could without being annoying.

When we arrived I nudged him with my right shoulder. "I'll go find a table."

He nodded. He was concerned for me, I could feel it.

But he walked away with Blue Team to get in line for chicken and rice.

I would be fine. As long as I stayed positive, I could block out the memories.

I wasn't in the brig anymore. I was safe, with Blue Team. Davidson and Phong were coming. Everything was _okay_.

Everything was okay.

I found a nice table along the wall with no one else. The other tables all had a few people, late comers arriving after their shifts. It was only 1334.

I put my tray down and rested my chin in my hand. My comm buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out, setting it on the table. A live call request from Davidson.

I accepted it.

"Bradley?"

"Tawny, _mi chiquilla_! ¿_Como estas_?"

"_Buena_." I smiled a bit. "Tired, but what else is new?"

He pursed his lips. "Are you really okay?"

"Y-yeah." I looked down at the table.

"¿_Estas seguro_?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

He scrutinized me. "You don't look okay. What happened in there?"

"What?" My eyes shot up before quickly returning to the table. "Nothing. I'm fine. How close are you?"

"Still about two weeks away." He knew I was trying to change the subject.

But he also understood.

"You know, _bicha_, I got taken by the Innies."

"What?" My head shot up.

"Yeah, a few years ago. Right before the Covenant attacked."

"What did they want?"

"Information." He shrugged. "It's how I got this."

I looked at the jagged scar along his cheekbone. It was thick, but not surgical. Not like John's. It looked just as painful, though.

"That's not the only one, it's just the easiest to see. And it was hard for me, when I got back."

I couldn't say anything.

Insurrectionists had tortured him?

My _parents_ supported the Insurrectionists; did they know how violent they were?

Davidson leaned forward. "What I'm trying to say is, I get it. If you wanna talk, whenever, just let me know. Yeah?"

I nodded listlessly, my gaze still distant.

"I gotta go. _Hasta pronto_."

"Yeah, see you." My voice was soft.

He left the call.

I swiped my hand down, collapsing the hologram. My eyes were still thoughtfully downcast, and troubled.

I'd been raised thinking the Innies were people fighting for justice, like my parents. I'd almost call them Insurrectionists themselves, but they weren't warriors.

Had I been lied to my whole life?

"Tawny?" Kelly settled on my left side.

"Hmm?"

She looked down at me. "Are you alright?"

I shook myself as John sat on my right. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Fred and Linda were across from us. Fred pulled his helmet off. "I missed real food."

Linda grabbed a drumstick. "MREs are fine; you're getting soft."

I leaned against John as he tugged his helmet off. Wishing that he didn't have his armor on, that I could feel his soft skin against mine. That he wasn't in danger so much.

I wanted to hide away with him forever, but that wasn't realistic. So I took what I could get.

He must have been thinking something similar. "Red Team's coming in with the _Spirit of Fire._ We're getting a break after that."

I looked up. "Really?"

He nodded, taking a mouthful of rice.

I reached up and gently turned his chin to face me. There was a nasty bruise along his right jawline, swelling and purple.

"What happened?" My voice went up an octave in concern.

He swallowed his food. "I hit the ground a little hard."

"'Hit the ground'?"

He took another bite to avoid having to respond.

Kelly reached behind me to shove his arm. "John stole a Banshee from the Covies."

I cocked my head. "He does that all the time."

"Yeah, but they shot this one down." Linda didn't look up from her food.

"They _what_? Are you okay?" I looked up at him with a worried expression.

He nodded.

I scanned his body. "How do you know? You've got that massive suit on."

"I'm fine."

I looked up at him, but he'd turned to face the front again. I couldn't see the bruise.

"If you're sure." My brows were furrowed; what if he wasn't okay?

He placed his free hand on my lap. "I am."

**oOOOo**

I was sitting on John's bed. Alone in the room; he was working.

Was I really alone?

I couldn't stop feeling like I was back on the Covenant ship. I knew I was fine, I was safe, but my heart was beating out of my chest.

What if they came back for me?

They hadn't planted any trackers - that had been the first thing the UNSC looked for when I got back - but who knew? They were on Earth. They were _on_ the African continent, same as me. It wasn't that hard to reach me.

I curled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arm around them. My stump was against the wall; the cold metal felt good on it.

My eyes were glazed over when John walked in.

He paused in the doorway, taking his helmet off. "Tawny?"

I didn't respond. I felt like I was frozen in place. My eyes focused, though, losing their glassy look.

"What's wrong?" he asked carefully.

When he settled on the bed next to me I flinched, pressing myself further into the corner.

John pushed himself up and backed away from the bed. "Can you talk?"

I didn't respond. Just pushed myself further into the corner, until it hurt. Corners were safe.

No, not safe; _nothing_ was safe. Corners were...familiar.

Metal corners soothes the burning skin from the electricity.

I had to get control of myself; John wouldn't hurt me.

I struggled to regain control of my body, nodding shakily. I could talk...probably.

"Do you want to?"

I looked down.

Did I want to talk about it? It would make me relive it again, but I seemed to be doing that enough on my own anyways.

I just wanted him to hold me.

I held my arm out towards him. My stump reached out, too.

He walked up, slowly, and knelt in front of me. I ran my hand down his face, rubbing my thumb under his eye. There was a faint scar, a little white line. How had he gotten it?

"All I could think about was you," I murmured.

He looked down at me, his eyes unreadable.

"I wanted to be with you. I would have done anything. I kept telling myself I'd get out somehow, and see you again…"

I bit my lip, my eyes staring through his chest.

"I'm glad you weren't there, though," I admitted quietly. "They would have used you against me."

He was silent, looking at me with a deep, indecipherable look.

I was back in the brig. Desperate to see John. To feel John. He would make it right.

I shifted forward and wrapped my arm around his chest. He latched his around my back, pulling me up with him as he stood. He resettled on the bed, one of his hands on the back of my head. My legs were wrapped around his waist.

God, being with him felt so _right_. Just being near him, I knew it was where I belonged. I knew that I was safe.

I closed my eyes, pressing myself into him. Nothing would keep us apart.

Nothing.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Gucci gang lol**

**Idk, I figured I'd spruce Lost up. Then I got sidetracked by a million other things, so it's been like a month or something since I started this process. Sorry!**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/26/2020)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

I fumbled with the button again. I didn't _have_ to wear this particular dress, but I wanted to. And, despite the buttons running up the front, I was determined to wear it.

It slipped out of my fingers again. I swore, frustrated tears swelling in my eyes.

The mattress complained when I dropped down onto it, not that I cared. My arm came up, wiping at the tears.

Why was I even crying? I could just wear something else.

But it was the principle of the matter. I wanted to wear this dress; why should I have to compromise?

When John walked in he was met with me on the bed, the bottom two buttons of my dress done, wiping tears off of my face.

"Tawny?" He pulled his helmet off.

"Hey, John." My voice sounded pitiful.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I looked down, running my thumb over a button. "I-I just- I wanted to wear this dress but I can't get the _stupid_ buttons. I'm fine."

"Can I help?"

I didn't say anything. I didn't want to need help, but I did. I'm sure I could have buttoned them all eventually. Given an hour or so.

I really hated having only one arm. It prevented me from doing so many things I was used to doing.

He walked up, pulling me to my feet on top of the bed. I wiped my eyes again as he buttoned up the dress.

He pulled the sleeves back up my shoulders, brushing his fingers over my collarbone as he moved to do the last few buttons. I shuddered as his fingers lingered on my skin.

It was a thin black dress that fitted tightly against my upper body before flaring out above my waist. It fell to just below my knees. The sleeves were short, though the bottom of the left sleeve was still longer than my arm.

I sniffed a bit. "Thank you."

Even when I was standing on the bed he was taller than me.

His hand came up to cup my face.

Anguish.

I placed my hand over his. "What's wrong?"

He didn't respond. His eyes were studying my face, taking in the most minute details that I could never dream of seeing. His thumb ran down the bridge of my nose, over my lips, down my chin. Despite him wearing his armor, his touch was incredibly light and gentle.

"We thought you died."

"What?"

His thumb traced my jaw. "We thought you died on Halo."

For some reason that unsettled me. I never considered what they thought had happened to me. They thought I was _dead_?

"I'm sorry." I couldn't meet his eyes. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

He didn't say anything for a minute. His fingers brushed the hair out of my face, running through the strands.

His thumb paused in its track over my cheekbone. "You don't use your powers anymore."

My eyes shot up. He held them evenly. Inquisitively.

I looked back down. "I haven't had to."

He didn't believe me. "Tawny, are-"

"I'm fine." I forced myself to believe those words. "It's fine."

He didn't say anything.

I was scared. The Covenant had _wanted_ me to use my powers. If I used my powers...they won. Even though I was safe now, it had been ingrained deeply in my mind - through beatings and electricity - to keep my powers in.

No matter what, I couldn't use my powers.

I knew it was ridiculous, but the thought of using my powers made me physically sick.

So I didn't.

John stepped back. "The _Spirit of Fire_ is docking at Cairo Station. We're going to meet Red Team, and you're coming."

"I am?" My heart jumped.

He nodded.

"When are we leaving?"

"Right now."

"Oh, okay." I grabbed a single tan, faux-leather boot for my left foot. "Let's go."

I took John's hand as we walked out into the hallway. The base was crowded, as always, and I found myself pressing into him. Crowds were never my thing, and they never would be.

John didn't like them, either. He just handled them better on the outside.

It was even more crowded on the tarmac. Pelicans loaded with personnel and supplies to restock the _Spirit_ and take some of the soldiers down to the surface.

We loaded into a Pelican. Blue Team was split up, so it was just John and me.

I sat next to John, who had grabbed a handle near the cockpit. I was leaning against his thigh, rubbing the bottom of my ring with my thumb.

"I hope Bradley's stationed planetside," I admitted.

John didn't say anything.

Davidson didn't really like John. At all. He'd even taken to pushing John around, during our final months on the _Spirit of Fire_. He pulled rank on him more than I could count, for tiny and trivial things, and John was powerless against the Lieutenant.

Hopefully he wouldn't continue that habit now.

We landed in the hangar on Cairo. The docking bay was across the station from us.

It really was beautiful up here. The bulkheads were retracted to reveal floor-to-ceiling windows. Earth was below us.

It was breathtaking.

It wasn't home, but it was nice.

I was walking between John and Linda down the hall. It was just as crowded on the station, but the space to accommodate the crowd was smaller. So we were pressed even closer.

When we arrived in the docking bay I saw a group of soldiers walking out of the _Spirit_.

One of them was familiar.

I ran up, wrapping my arm around him. "Phong!"

"What the- _Tawny_? What are you doing here?" I didn't realize how much I'd missed his Southern accent until I heard it.

I pulled away. "I've been on Earth, didn't Bradley tell you?"

"Aw, that marine doesn't tell me shit. The _hell_ happened to yer arm?"

I looked down at my stump, which was hidden beneath the sleeve of my dress. I pushed my nausea down. "The Covenant. They're, um, they're growing me a new one on the surface."

He snorted. "I bet Davidson had a fit when he saw that."

"Probably," I agreed.

"Oh, speaking of." He pointed behind me.

I turned. Davidson was walking up behind me.

I gasped. "Bradley!"

I hit him a little hard, latching my arm around him.

His _oof_ melted into a laugh. "_Te extrañe, caramela. Me deja ver tu brazo._" (I missed you, sweetie. Let me see your arm.)

I tugged the sleeve up, letting him see the bandage. "_Esta bien, no le duele._" (It's okay, it doesn't hurt.)

He ran his fingers down the wrappings. "¿_Estas seguro_?" (Are you sure?)

I nodded.

He hugged me again. "I'm glad you're okay."

I smushed my face into the front of his shoulder. "Me, too."

"Where's that SPARTAN?" He straightened up, looking around. "I know saw him with you when I came in."

"Oh, he's probably with Red Team." I glanced around the docking bay.

"Has he been good to you?"

"What?" My nose scrunched up. "Yeah. O-of course."

"You know I have to make sure."

I shook my head, looking down to hide my fond smile. "You're too overprotective."

"¡_Por buena razón_!" He grabbed my left shoulder. "Look what happens when I'm gone!" (For good reason!)

"So? It's…" I took a deep breath. "It's fine. I've only got a month or so until the new one's done, anyway."

"Still."

I looked down. He may not have been able to help me, even if he had been there. The Sangheili would have taken him, too. Or just killed him. I didn't know which would have been worse.

If they'd taken him, maybe he would have been tortured in my place.

I might have cracked then.

Davidson brought my chin up. "Hey, _lo siento_. I didn't mean to make you upset." (I'm sorry.)

I shook my head. "I'm fine."

He raised an eyebrow; he didn't believe me.

We started walking towards the SPARTANs. They were all together by the _Spirit_'s dock, and they stood out. Eight seven-foot tall soldiers were hard to miss.

I took a deep breath, trying to refocus. "Do you know if you're going planetside?"

Davidson shook his head. "I'm going to be on the station, but they've given some of us a few weeks' shore leave. Wherever we want."

"That's awesome! Where are you going to go?" I wished he'd go to New Mombasa, but that was selfish.

"I think I'm going to visit _España_. _Mi hermanita_ just had a baby." (Spain, my little sister)

I smiled up at him, pushing my own jealous emotions down. "Congratulations! Are they a girl or a boy?"

"A little boy. _Se llama Vitorio_." (His name is Vitorio.)

"How old is he?"

"He's only four months old. I have pictures, do you want to see him?"

I nodded, my eyes wide. "Please."

We stopped along the docking wall and he pulled out his comm. He found the album fairly quickly and pulled up an image of a vaguely gremlin-looking newborn.

He swiped to the next picture, in which the baby looked much happier. He was wrapped in a blue blanket, but he'd pushed it down and was holding the matching blue cap in his hand.

I giggled. "He's so cute."

"He is." Davidson was looking down at the picture with fond eyes.

I pointed to the thick black mop on his head. "He's got your hair."

"That's what Paloma said!" Davidson looked proud. "He's gonna be so handsome."

I laughed, wrapping my arm around him. "I'm glad you're here."

"_Igualmente_. It's been too long." (Me, too.)

We walked into earshot of the SPARTANs. They were conversing, but not aloud.

They must have been talking over the comms. I could feel the mild, tidal emotions that casual conversation brought about. But to anyone who was watching it would look like they were just staring out over the docking bay.

It was a bit weird to see them all standing, almost in a line, silently.

Davidson crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "_Un poco escalofriante, _¿_no_?" (A little creepy, no?)

I hummed. "_Pero necesitan un poco privacidad._" (They need some privacy, though.)

I knew that the SPARTANs had very little privacy. It wasn't a crime to keep your conversations to yourself, was it?

He shrugged. "_Lo que sea_." (Whatever.)

I grinned. "You're just mad because you don't know what they're saying."

"It doesn't bother you?!"

"No, not really." I glanced at John. "I'm not entitled to their conversations."

Davidson didn't say anything for a bit. He just stood there, watching the SPARTANs.

A few of them had noticed his gaze, but they ignored it. Unless he needed them to do something, they weren't out of line.

"So, _caramela_, about this SPARTAN. ¿_Es su novio_?" (Is he your boyfriend?)

I nodded. "Yep." I popped the "p".

"When did that happen?"

"Bradley, you know I moved into his room before we left the _Spirit of Fire_." I shrugged. "It was around that time."

He grunted. "_No lo me gusta_." (I don't like it)

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Tawny and Davidson are my faves lol. It's always fun to write them together**

**To LONE RANGER 97; Tawny is 5'4". I figured it's a good, average height. I don't want Tawny to be short (She already looks short next to the SPARTANS like everyone else)**

**Feel free to review or IM questions! I've done tons of worldbuilding beyond even the scope of this story, so fire away :)**

**(Edited 4/27/2020)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

**(TW: Graphic nightmare)**

Something was wrong. Something was _deeply_ wrong. Dread formed a solid pit in my stomach.

My eyes shot open.

I was in bed. John was beneath me, his body tense. His eyes were screwed shut, his lip curled.

An image flashed through my mind; Sam.

Sam was...accepting...of his fate. John, Linda, Kelly, and Fred saluted him. Then they had to tear themselves away. They had to run away from Sam.

John still saw what happened to him. Even as he ran out of the giant floating city with Blue Team, he could see them torturing his friend. His brother. And he was completely unable to stop them.

I pushed myself up as best as I could, patting John's chest.

"John. John, wake up," I whispered.

Sam screamed as the Brutes pinned him down. It was a scream of defiance.

It quickly morphed into one of agony as an Elite brought the energy sword down on his body.

But they didn't kill him yet. No, they wanted to have fun with this. They prolonged Sam's death. Drew it out.

The energy sword came down again. None of the wounds would be immediately fatal. The Elite was too sick to let him die that quickly.

His screams faded into weak, gurgling moans.

The sword came down over him one last time, and they stopped altogether.

I shook myself. These weren't my thoughts. This wasn't my nightmare. I had no right to listen to it, even if it was practically being thrown at me.

I slid off of the bed, shaking John's chest. "John, you're having a nightmare."

He shot up in the bed, pulling his sidearm from under the pillow. I didn't flinch when he pointed it down at me. He had nightmares enough for me to know that he was always, always, scared when he woke up.

When he came to his senses he seemed to deflate.

He slid the pistol back under his pillow. "I'm sorry."

I sat on the bed beside him, wrapping my arm around his waist. "Don't be. It's not your fault."

He rested his head on mine, exhaling sharply through his nose. "I don't remember what it was this time."

I chewed on my lip. I knew he was lying; he always remembered his nightmares.

But I just said, "I'm sorry."

His left hand came up, running over his hair. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

He readjusted me so that I was facing him, resting his chin on my head. "I am."

"I'm not." I pushed against his chest.

He let me go, looking down at me.

"I'm worried about you. You can ask for help, you know. There are psychiatrists here, good ones. You should go see one."

"So should you."

"This isn't about me." I ran my hand down his cheek. "I'm worried about _you_."

"I'm fine."

"You say that a lot." I brush my finger against the stubble on his chin. "But you're not. I _know_ you're not. And it's okay."

He was silent, watching me. Absorbing my words. Examining them.

There had to be a loophole, one which he could twist to get out of this.

He hated it, because I was right. He needed help. He'd been hurt so much, so deeply.

He was so close to breaking. Carrying so much guilt, and so much responsibility. The entire human race. His brothers and sisters. The soldiers who died on the battlefield beside him.

I kissed his chin. "You're not supposed to be okay all the time, no one is. Not even SPARTANs."

He pulled me close to him again, his grip almost too tight. I could feel his anguish mounting.

He rested his chin on my head, taking deep and measured breaths.

Something dripped onto the back of my head.

He was crying.

I wrapped my arm around him, running it up and down his back. His body was taught, but he didn't sob. It was a silent grief, a grief so powerful it ripped at his chest. It formed a lump in his throat. He was beginning to crack under how stressful his life had been.

The fact that Sam had needed to sacrifice his life when he was still a child. That there were even more who'd died before that. That, even through all the hardships and people he'd lost, he was still here.

He was still here.

He felt dirty. How did he deserve to keep going when so many who were raised with him, under the same circumstances, couldn't?

There were so many people he would never see again. So much pain I would never understand.

Some part of him had been locked away, and no one, not even me, would ever touch it again.

His grip around me loosened as he cried.

I stood up on the bed, readjusting so his head was under mine. I ran my hand over his back and shoulders, up into his hair. His tears soaked the front of his shirt that I wore.

I wished I knew how to help him.

I kissed the top of his head, holding back my own tears. His grief was so profound, I felt it in my own chest.

This was a weight he'd been carrying for a lifetime. Ever since he was stolen away from his family, and raised to die.

It was silent for awhile. I ran my hand over his hair, letting him grieve.

He deserved at least that much.

The anguish lessened.

John was asleep. He'd cried himself to sleep.

I lowered him back down, struggling to keep myself upright. He was _heavy_.

When I was sure he was comfortable I resettled next to him. I was between him and the wall, my arm draped over his chest. The fabric of his shirt was soft.

I couldn't go back to sleep.

I couldn't stop thinking about how to help John.

As empathetic as I was, I didn't actually know much about psychology. I knew, though, that crying was a good sign. He was beginning to process his traumas, instead of blocking them out. It was painful, but it was good.

Maybe he would go see a psychiatrist. He needed to.

**oOOOo**

I was in the rec room. Red Team was suited up, prepared to deploy at a moment's notice, but they were taking their downtime in stride. Unlike Linda, who was spending all of her time in the gym or the shooting range.

Jerome and Douglas had their helmets off, playing a game of chess. Ji was just sitting, probably watching them, with his helmet on. Alice was nowhere to be seen. Maybe in the gym with Linda.

Kelly and Fred were also playing chess, next to Douglas and Jerome.

Fred was winning, I thought, but I never learned to play chess. So I was watching boredly, my head on John's arm. He was on my left, his arm around my shoulders.

My comm buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket - my little grey dress had pockets - and saw a live call request from Davidson.

I glanced up at John before accepting it.

Davidson's face filled the hologram. His eyes flicked up to John, noting the arm around my shoulders, before looking back at me. "Tawny! _Adivina quién tengo_!" (Guess who I have!)

I bit my lip, a grin tugging at the corners. "¿_Tienes el bebé_?" (Do you have the baby?)

He lifted a little baby up, showing him off. "_Tengo el bebé_! _Que guapo, _¿_sí_?" (I have the baby! He's handsome, yeah?)

I cooed at the chunky baby. "_Hola, pequeño_! He's adorable, Bradley."

"Yes, and he is very aware of this." He turned to the baby. "¿_Eres adorable_?" (Are you adorable?)

Vitorio giggled openly, his eyes squinting. He was a seriously chunky baby, and he absolutely radiated joy.

I bit my lip. "I love him!"

"_Igualmente_. I'm so glad to be home." (Me, too.)

Any jealousy I'd been harboring evaporated right there. He deserved to spend some time with his family, in his home. He wasn't ignoring me at all.

"I'm glad you get to go home," I said earnestly. "How long had you been away?"

He hummed. "A year, I think."

I heard someone yelling in the background.

"Ah, I have to go, Tawny. Bye!" He lifted Vitorio's hand. "Can you say 'bye', _pequeño_? Bye bye!"

I laughed. "Bye, Bradley."

I turned my comm off and slid it back into my pocket, still grinning.

"Bradley's sister had a baby a few months ago," I said. "He was so excited to see him."

John nodded.

"I'm happy for him."

John wasn't quite sure what to say. So he said nothing.

I set my head back against his arm. It didn't quite reach his shoulder, unfortunately, so this would do.

"This is nice," I murmured.

He nodded. His body was relaxed against mine, a rare occurrence with him. He wasn't one to be touchy-feely outside the privacy of our room, but he'd wrapped his arm around my shoulders like it was no big deal.

This was shaping up to be a good day. I could think of very few things in my personal life that needed work. Sure, I had no idea where my parents were, but I needed some time to think about things concerning them. Being around them would confuse things. At least I knew they were alive.

And maybe my ribs were aching, but that was to be expected. My leg didn't hurt at all.

My left arm - or lack thereof - was still sore, but that wasn't unusual. The wounds on my palm and stomach had completely healed over into pink scars. And my new arm was almost done. So it was all good.

I closed my eyes, a content smile on my face.

I was _determined_ to be content. Demons had been popping up in my mind with increasing frequency; I'd like to think I got pretty good at hiding them from John. He had enough to worry about.

Safe. I was safe. John was safe. Blue Team was safe.

Everything was _okay_.

"Ms. Clark?" There was a medic beside the couch.

I looked up. "Yes, ma'am?"

"You were scheduled to come in to the medical ward today."

My eyes widened; It had slipped my mind entirely.

I stood up, brushing my dress off. "O-of course. I'm sorry."

"It's no problem. If you'll come with me."

As she started towards the door I turned to John. "I'll be right back. Sorry."

He gave me a tiny smile and a nod.

I followed the medic into a room, sitting on the bed at her behest.

She checked something on the holopad on the desk. "It looks like it's time to take your cast off."

I leaned forward. "It is?!"

See? _Another_ good thing.

The nurse nodded. "I need to check your other injuries really quickly. Could you take the dress off?"

I nodded, standing on the floor and slipping it off. She noted the thin pink scars on my stomach.

"And the brace," she said. "Do you need help?"

I shook my head. "I can do it."

I took the brace off from around my ribs, slowly and deliberately and _carefully_.

She hummed, gently pressing her hands against my ribs. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as when it had happened.

"This is almost healed, too. Give it another week or so."

I nodded.

"And the lacerations are healing well. This one may take some time to close all the way, but it looks like it's doing well." I followed her fingers to the deep stab wound that had somehow slipped in between two of my ribs.

She turned and pulled out a machine as I refastened the brace.

She was messing with a few of the controls.

I took the opportunity to slide my dress back over my head and down my body. It fell to several inches above my knees.

"Alright, can you sit back on the bed? We'll get this cast off."

I pushed myself up onto the medical bed, sliding my leg into the machine. It scanned my leg, slicing cleanly through the cast from the bottom and the top. When I pulled my leg back out it was bare.

I flexed my foot up and down in wonder. "It doesn't hurt."

"Good."

She set to work putting the machine back and disposing my cast.

I bit my lip. "What about my arm?"

She turned, glancing from my face to my stump. Even though I'd pulled my dress back on, it had pretty short sleeves. The stump was easily visible.

"Oh, I don't know." She turned back to the holopad and typed something. "You'd have to ask Dr. Otieno about that."

"Where is he?"

She jerked her head. "In his office, probably."

"C-can I go ask?"

"Knock yourself out."

I all but jumped off of the bed, my bare right foot slapping against the floor, and walked to Dr. Otieno's office.

I pressed the intercom button.

"Hello?"

I brushed against the underside of my ring with my thumb. "He-hello, can I come in?"

"One minute, please."

The door slid open. Dr. Otieno was a short old man, with long dreadlocks that hung over his shoulders and wire-rimmed glasses. He looked up at me from behind his desk.

"Ah, Ms. Clark. How can I help you?" He had a warm smile.

"I-I was just wondering how soon m-my arm will be ready."

"Of course. It's almost done; just another week or so."

A grin flashed across my face. "Okay."

"Is that all?"

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Of course. Anytime, Ms. Clark."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Hi! Sorry about John's nightmare; he's got a lot of trauma, and pretending that he doesn't is useless because it's simply not true**

**Ik that the events of the nightmare don't match up with cannon. That's intentional; no one ever has a nightmare that's a play-by-play of a memory, it's not super realistic. So I added some details to make it worse in John's head, because that definitely seems like something that his subconscious mind would do; poor guy.**

**Anywho I love you guys!**

**(Edited 4/27/2020)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

John was sitting at the desk, reading something on a datapad. He didn't have to sleep every night, but he liked to be in his room at least.

It was 1049.

I couldn't sleep.

"Tawny."

I hummed inquisitively.

John knew I wasn't asleep, and he knew that I hadn't slept at all yet.

"What is it?" he asked.

I rolled over to face him.

I just looked at him for a moment.

How did I get so lucky? He was such an amazing person. Kind and strong and handsome and honest.

I closed my eyes and shoved my face into the pillow. "I'm scared."

"Why?"

"I'm getting my arm back tomorrow."

He didn't get why I was nervous. I guess he wouldn't; he'd been through more intense surgeries than I could ever hope to survive. Of _course_ something like this wouldn't affect him.

He tried to be sympathetic, though. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I rolled over to face the ceiling. "It's just...what if something goes wrong? I can't do _anything_ like this. I can't drive, I can't draw. What if I get stuck with a bad arm?"

"That won't happen."

I moved my stump up, imagining I was holding my hand above me. I could almost _feel_ my fingers.

"I hope you're right," I whispered.

My stomach still churned, though.

It must have shown on my face, or maybe he could hear my erratic heartbeat, because he set the datapad down and sat on the bed next to me.

I rested my head on his lap, closing my eyes as his hands ran through my hair.

I hummed in contentment. His fingers sent tingles through my body as they wove through my hair.

"You'll be fine."

He sounded so sure. I believed it, for a second, because he was so certain.

Everything was fading. I was about to fall asleep. I was exhausted, and John had helped me calm down.

He always did.

His thumb made its way down to a divot below my temple. When he massaged it, I fell asleep almost instantly. There was nothing I could do to keep myself awake, even if I wanted to.

"I love you, John," I murmured.

"I love you too."

**oOOOo**

I walked out of the bathroom in a hospital gown. My fear was back.

I always hated surgery. The laser surgery for my eyes was one thing, because I was awake, but this same sick fear had churned in my gut when I went in to get my stoma.

And for good reason, too. Something had been done wrong, and my stoma had prolapsed less than a day after the surgery. I'd had to go under _again_ while they fixed it.

John was there. He wouldn't be there for the surgery, obviously, but he was with me now.

I buried my face in his chest.

He laughed through his nose and brought his hand up around my back. "What is this?"

I groaned. "Obstinance."

I wanted my arm back, desperately, but I also desperately wanted to avoid surgery.

I couldn't have both.

I could feel John's amusement, but he was also unhappy. That piqued my interest. Why was he upset?

Oh, he hated that I had to go through this.

He'd been through worse, at the hands of people who called themselves his allies. I had no right to be nervous about this in the face of what he'd been through.

I straightened up, meeting his eyes. "I'll be fine."

If I ignored the dizzying, buzzing fear that made my hand fall numb.

"Isn't that my line?" John smirked.

My nose wrinkled. "You're lying when you say it, though. I really am okay."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me to him.

I latched my arm around his waist, wishing I could magically regrow my other arm. I had a lot of special abilities, but I doubted that was one of them.

"Ms. Clark?"

I turned to see Dr. Otieno.

"Come with me, please."

The fear jumped, my entire body tingling.

I looked up at John. "Bye."

He let me go, his blue eyes unreadable. He was hopeful, though, that this would go well. "Good luck."

I was led into a small white room with a bed.

The doctor pinned the arm of my hospital gown up. "Are you nervous?"

I wanted to deny it, but I couldn't lie about the profound anxiety pumping in time with my heart. "A-a bit."

"I understand. I promise, my surgeons are good. You'll be coming back around soon with a new arm."

I took a deep breath. It shook when I exhaled.

My head dropped down onto the bed. "Thank you, doctor."

"Of course. I'll see you in seven hours."

Almost as soon as he stuck the IV in my arm, I lost consciousness.

**oOOOo**

I was in the Domain. I had both of my arms again.

The Domain had a way of reverting everyone to their most natural, healthy form. John, for example, was unaugmented in the Domain. I didn't have a stoma either.

I looked around. "Warden?"

"Tawny." He was behind me.

My head tilted up at him. "Am I dying again?"

"You are not dying."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But, I didn't come here."

"It would appear you are susceptible to the Domain's will as you enter the subconscious realm."

My eyes widened as I felt the Domain calling me.

I looked up at Warden. "Do you feel that?"

He didn't answer. Of course he felt it.

He nodded his head for me to follow the pulse.

"I'll...I'll be right back." I started walking absently away from him.

It led me into another lounge room. I looked around, but I couldn't see anybody.

Still, this was definitely where I was supposed to be.

"Tawny, I assume?" A voice behind me.

I knew him.

"Sam," I said.

He was a tall blond boy - much taller than John - with serious green eyes. I'd always been told my eyes were startlingly green, but his looked unnaturally so.

Actually, if the height difference was discounted, he could have been my brother. I knew he wasn't related to me, of course, since he was born on Harvest, but the similarities were eerie.

He was clearly still a teenager - a child; only fourteen - and unaugmented. Dressed in a white and grey garb.

He studied me. "John cares a lot about you."

"He cares a lot about you, too."

Sam didn't say anything.

"I didn't know human echoes were in the Domain," I admitted.

"We weren't. Not until you arrived." He looked down at me.

I met his eyes. "Has John talked to you?"

"He hasn't been in here."

"So he doesn't know you're here."

Sam didn't respond.

"John has nightmares, you know. About you."

Sam's voice was low. Regretful. "I know."

Tears stung my eyes. "He still carries so much guilt about it."

Sam looked down.

"He doesn't just feel responsible for you, he misses you. As a brother."

Something tugged at Sam's heart. But he shoved it away. "I don't think he'd react well, if he saw me here."

"He'll figure out that you're here eventually."

We lapsed into silence.

I took a breath. "The Domain called me here for a reason."

Sam said nothing.

He understood my hidden meaning, though. It had called us here so that I could convince him to visit with John.

"He needs to see you. To talk to you," I insisted.

"He _needs_ to focus on what's ahead," Sam argued. "John's tough. He can handle it."

I shook my head. "You know you're just rationalizing. If _he_ had died, he wouldn't care as much. But it _wasn't_ him, it was you who made that sacrifice. The first sacrifice. He's...he's breaking, Sam."

I bit down on my tears.

"He's breaking under the pressure. And until he's nothing but a shell, he'll _keep_ pushing through because he _is_ strong. That's his problem."

Sam studied the floor. Not submissively, nor in shame or sorrow, but in a focused manner.

"How would we get him here?" he finally asked.

"I don't know. I-I did it once, but I had help." I wiped absently at my eyes.

We lapsed once more into silence, this time contemplative.

"Warden?" I tried.

He was behind me. "Tawny."

I turned, looking up at him. "How do I call John into the Domain?"

"You must simply focus on him, pushing your mind out beyond the heavens of the Domain. Your intentions will find him."

I bit my lip. "Why doesn't the Domain call him itself, like it did to me?"

"It was not able to call out to you for several months after you gained the ability to enter it. It must build up strength within him before it can become anything more than a pulse in the deepest pits of his mind."

He always spoke so poetically.

"O-okay." I took a breath. "And it'll help me, like-like it did the first time?"

Warden nodded once.

"Okay. I can do this."

It wasn't hard to focus on John. I found myself doing it often, without even meaning to. I just had to hear his name and I felt so many things. Fierce protectiveness, attraction, longing, love.

His bright blue eyes and quick wit. His disregard for himself and his ingrained need to protect as many people as he could.

God, I would do anything for him. Anything.

I took these feelings, these memories, these hopes, and pushed them out into the world.

He was there, in front of me. His back was to Sam; he hadn't noticed him yet.

"Tawny?"

"John." I smiled.

He noticed Warden first, acknowledging him with a glance. Then he turned back to me. "Why am I here?"

Sam stepped forward. "It's been awhile, John."

So many intense emotions, both negative and positive, erupted within John. I almost choked on them. The depth of his emotions was staggering.

"Samuel?" His voice was soft. Uncertain. He reached out for his fallen brother, terrified he was dreaming.

I was out in the hall, as if I'd never been in the room. I looked up at Warden with confusion.

"It is not our place to intrude upon their reunion," he explained.

"Of course," I nodded, "you're right. Thanks."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry, but Sam's death makes me cry every single time. Every time.**

**_SO_**** I figured it was good angst fuel, right?**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/27/2020)**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was incredibly numb. I couldn't feel anything in my body. That made it hard to move at all.

It was an uphill battle to open my eyes. The muscles refused to listen, insisting that I was still sleepy.

But I wanted to wake up.

I forced them open, vaguely recalling a similar feeling when I used to wake up early for school. Everything in my body wanted to stay still and return to slumber.

"John?" I scanned as much as I could see of the dull grey room.

I was alone.

My eyes flashed around the room.

I was in a bed in a pristine hospital room. Why was I...?

The surgery. My arm.

I looked down and saw thick bandages over where my stump had been. My arm continued out the bottom of the bandages, into a fabric sling. I followed it down and saw a wrist, and a hand. Fingers.

A breathless giggle escaped my lips.

I had my arm back. I could _feel_ it.

It was incredibly sore, like I'd worked it too hard. Funny, considering I'd never worked it at all.

I had two arms again.

I spent a few minutes staring down at my arm. It was really there. No hallucination.

Something stirred unpleasantly in my stomach.

I groaned, knowing what was coming. Was there something to...there was a trash can beside the bed. I leaned down, trying to pull it closer. The fingers of my right hand almost touched it.

It was no use.

The movement did bring up the contents of my stomach, though. I threw up on the floor.

My face was a grimace as I pulled myself back up onto the bed. Surely there had to be some way to call someone in here.

There was a little red button on the left arm of the bed. I reached over and touched it.

Within seconds there was a nurse. "Are you alright?"

I nodded. "I'm okay. I, um, I threw up on the floor, though. I'm sorry."

He looked down at the mess. "It's alright. I'll get a bot to clean that up. How do you feel?"

"Good." I grinned a bit. "I can feel my arm."

"That's good. Can you try to move your fingers?"

I swallowed. Could I?

It was worth a try.

I watched with rapt attention as my mind sent the signal to move my fingers. The muscles twitched, and my fingers moved. They wiggled lethargically.

I blinked; I'd done it. I'd really moved my arm.

He grinned. "Not bad."

I turned to look as a small, disk-shaped robot rolled in to clean up the mess.

"Oh! Wh-where's John?" I looked back up at the nurse.

"John?"

"Sorry, the Master Chief," I corrected myself.

Very few people knew John's first name. I'd forgotten that for a moment; I was still loopy from the sedatives. And I couldn't imagine knowing John as anything other than John.

"Oh." The nurse looked relieved. "He's in the waiting room. He's been there since you went into surgery."

I made a face. "That's not good for him."

"We told him he could go rest, but he refused."

"Thank you for trying."

The nurse stood, patting the bed beside me. "Do you want to see him?"

"Please?" My voice was a bit too eager.

"Alright, he'll be right in." The nurse walked out.

I took a deep breath, looking down at my arm. I had my arm back.

Of course, it wasn't my old arm. Identical, but not the exact same one. My old arm had been destroyed.

But I had an arm, nonetheless.

I would have been happy with a cybernetic replacement. To have a whole new arm, out of flesh and blood, was amazing. Unbelievable.

The door slid open.

My heart leaped. "John."

And suddenly everything was okay. Even the quietest worries in the back of my mind were gone.

"How are you feeling?" John knelt beside the bed.

"John, I can move my fingers!"

He smiled a bit. "That's good."

I grinned, biting my lip in excitement. "Look!"

With a small amount of focus - the anesthesia was still messing me up a bit - I wiggled my fingers.

"I can feel my arm, John." I bit down on my lip, feeling the loopy grin on my face.

John didn't say anything. I looked up and saw him staring at me.

"I still have to do six months of physical therapy, b-but that's okay. I'm kind of excited for it."

He was silent.

"Are you okay?" I tilted my head.

"They could have killed you."

My heart dropped.

I still had nightmares, and sometimes the memories of that awful month would jump out at me, but I thought everyone else had moved on. I _hadn't_ died, after all, so what did it matter?

"But they didn't," I said eventually. I was trying to calm both of us.

"They would have."

"I know," I mumbled. That thought weighed on me every single day.

"You shouldn't be in danger like that."

My head shot up. "But you should? Why?"

"Tawny, I was raised for this."

I scowled. "The SPARTAN II Program was awful. Don't use that to justify _anything_."

He cupped my face with his hand. "The morality doesn't change anything. I can handle myself better than you."

"I was made to do this, too," I reminded him. "We both know this is bigger than the war. S-something is coming, and we're both going to be out there."

That thought made me queasy. I still hadn't used my powers, other than my empathy, since I'd been captured. And _that_ was involuntary.

I honestly didn't know if I'd ever use my powers again.

**oOOOo**

I'd been in the medical ward for a few days. They were going to release me in less than a week.

I couldn't wait; there was absolutely nothing to do in the med bay.

I was left alone with my thoughts.

That was generally a bad situation, but especially so after I was captured. My thoughts wandered off, remembering pain and fear from the past that still seemed to affect me.

Why was it still affecting me? It had been _months_.

The door slid open. I'd expected to see Valeria, the physical therapist who was working with me, but instead it was a familiar form. Someone I hadn't spoken to in awhile.

"Professor Anders?"

"Tawny." She settled into a chair beside my bed. "How are you?"

I felt bad, honestly. I hadn't been talking to a lot of people I would normally keep up with. I hadn't spoken to Davidson in weeks, and I hadn't seen Anders since right after I escaped. Even then it had been a passing thing, not a real conversation.

I shoved my guilt away; I could deal with it later.

"I'm okay. I think they're going to release me soon." I was trying to focus on the positives.

"That's good, because I wanted to talk with you about what we're going to do once you're out."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I _have_ been placed in charge of studying your abilities, since you're not with Halsey."

Something dark and bitter panged in her heart when she mentioned the doctor.

She pushed it away. "And as much as I would love to recreate them, just to shove it in her face, I don't think I can. Not yet, at least. I want to do an even more in depth study."

That sounded...a bit intimidating.

"Not the way you're thinking," she soothed. "I want to study how this came to be. Information. You said the Domain tells you things, right? Do you think you can use it to find out how your powers came to be?"

"O-oh, I already know how."

"You do?" She looked a bit surprised. "How? When did you find out?"

I thought back. "About the time I accidentally went to Earth."

I remembered meeting First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song. I'd been so shocked at several things. Her appearance, her wisdom, and the knowledge she shared with me.

Professor Anders was staring at me pointedly. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Oh, sorry." I shook myself. "It's...not as interesting as you think. I met a Forerunner who told me that she'd manipulated my-my DNA, to give me a few different abilities."

I left John's involvement out.

I trusted Professor Anders, but John's abilities weren't mine to share. If he didn't tell anyone, I wouldn't either.

And other than Blue Team, he hadn't told anyone.

"You met a Forerunner?" Ander's excitement was physically tangible. Her voice quivered, and she leaned forward. There was a hungry gleam in her eyes.

"I-I did. Her name is First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song, but she usually goes by the Librarian."

"You said she manipulated your DNA. How?"

I shrugged my right shoulder. "She was a Lifeworker. That was- that was pretty much her entire job, before they fired the Halo Array. She-she said she planted seeds in my ancestors that accumulated in me, a-and my abilities."

"Why?"

"Oh," I blinked, "she said I was supposed to restore the Domain."

"What's wrong with the Domain?"

"The Domain is alive. It's like a massive AI, i-in a way." My tone grew somber. "B-but when they fired Halo it damaged the Domain. It's like...it's a shell now. It used to be so much bigger, and more knowledgeable. She says I'm going to restore it somehow."

"Well, do you know how?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. She said the Domain would guide me, like it does when I teleport."

"Why would someone go to all that effort to restore the Domain? The universe has been fine without it for millions of years." Anders was thinking aloud, and hadn't aimed the question directly at me.

I answered it anyway. "Because that's not the only reason I have my powers."

"Well, what's the other reason?" She leaned forward.

"There-there's an ancient being that wants to eradicate humanity...and he's not with the Covenant."

I felt Anders's trepidation. So many people wanted us dead, it would seem.

But she, too, was trying to focus on positive things. "So he's working alone? That's good, at least."

"N-no, he's not," I admitted mournfully. "He has an army on his side, and they could take out the entire galaxy if he saw fit."

"So why haven't we encountered him?"

"I...he's been trapped, somehow. But First-Light thinks he's going to escape soon. I-I don't know how, or where." My face heated. "First-Light can only tell me so much."

Anders shifted. "Do you know _anything_ about him?"

I thought for a minute.

"Not much," I finally said. "He's an ancient Forerunner who goes by the title Ur-Didact."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: WOW it felt like forever!**

**Anywho I love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/27/2020)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

John was sitting beside the hospital bed in a grey padded chair. "This isn't like fighting someone. It's harder to pin down."

"I-it will be. It's really weird." I squared my shoulders. "You just have to take assertive control, and trust that it'll happen."

He nodded once and closed his eyes. I usually laid down when I tried to enter the Domain, since leaving my body made it go limp, but John insisted he would be fine.

I felt when his mind entered the Domain. He was still here, but barely. His body went lax, as if he was sleeping.

He often slept sitting up, so it wasn't too weird. I couldn't do that; I fell over every single time.

I laid back down on the small white pillow and entered the Domain myself.

I was in a hallway. John was there, in a strange gown exactly like mine.

"You did it." I managed to summon a smile and directed it up at him.

He glanced around. "That felt different."

"Well, the other times you came here someone else pulled you in."

Warden was behind us. "Revivers."

"Warden!" I smiled tiredly up at him. "How are you?"

It was easy to put up a happy facade, especially around the Warden. Anyone looked happy next to him.

"I am well, Tawny." He nodded.

John perked up. His eyes narrowed in on a doorway.

"John?" I tilted my head.

"There was...a pulse." He connected the dots; the pulse I'd spoken about. He was feeling it.

"Go on." I waved him towards the door. "The Domain gets impatient."

He walked like a man in a trance, which he may have been, towards the doorway. I watched as the shadows and mist enveloped him.

"He figured out how to enter by himself." My voice was thick with pride.

Warden nodded. "Good. He will need the knowledge he is about to gain."

I reached for my ring with my left hand. It wasn't there, of course, since I didn't have my own clothes in the Domain.

"So, what's he learning?" I asked casually.

"That is for him to divulge."

"That's fair." I hummed. "How's Sam doing?"

"Samuel is well."

"Good."

We fell into silence. It wasn't awkward. Both of us were happy to just sit there and enjoy the Domain.

But soon, nasty thoughts started creeping into my mind. Memories from the brig.

I glanced up suddenly. "Do you ever regret anything?"

Warden looked down at me. "I have dedicated my existence to the protection of the Domain. What is there to regret?"

"But what about before that?"

"I did not have a life before my servitude to the Domain."

I slid down the wall, sitting with my legs splayed out in front of me. "I'm sorry. Do you ever want to?"

"Experience life outside of the Domain?"

I nodded.

"I can form bodies in the physical world. I have millions."

"Wow. Millions of bodies?"

"Indeed."

"That's impressive."

John walked back out.

He was...uncertain. His brow was subtly furrowed and his lips downturned.

I pushed myself up and walked over to him. "What's wrong?"

"I saw an Elite."

An image flashed through my head. A Sangheili in golden armor. At once elevated and disgraced.

"The Arbiter," I murmured.

John nodded.

"Well, what did it say about him?"

His blue eyes pierced into mine. "He's going to help us destroy the Covenant."

**oOOOo**

I was sitting on the bed, staring off into space. I'd been released from the recovery ward a little less than a week ago.

The days were starting to blur together.

Everything felt lethargic and slow. I rested my head against the wall, my blank gaze on the ceiling. I couldn't feel anything. I didn't want to feel anything.

Feelings are what got people hurt.

I felt hollow. That was good, right? If I was hollow, I couldn't feel pain. I couldn't feel _anything_. I didn't even want to try.

Push the memories down.

You're not with the Covenant anymore, that was four months ago. They can't reach you here.

But they're on the same continent. Not just the same planet, the very land you walk on. They're walking on it, too.

How far would they have to walk to reach me?

Not very far. I'd heard whispers of the Sangheili prisoner they'd marched into the stockade. Not only was he on the same continent, he was in the same base as me.

Well, they couldn't reach me if they couldn't find me. I would have to keep doing what I'd been doing; not using my powers. That's what they were after me for. They wouldn't take me if I didn't use them.

My eyes closed. I was always so tired now. Maybe I'd take another nap.

The door slid open, and John walked in.

I felt something then. I loved John. Even in this haze, I loved him. I would always love him, even though something deep inside of me screamed that it was a weakness.

"Have you moved?" he asked. He already knew the answer.

I hummed lazily. I hadn't moved since his shift started some three hours ago.

"You said you would eat."

I didn't say anything, though my heart did pang at the disappointment I could hear and feel within John. I hadn't eaten in three days. I just wanted to fall asleep. Sleep was a nice escape.

Something, an invisible force, wrapped around me. My eyes shot open as John pulled me through the air in a cocoon of ultrasonic waves.

I landed in his arms, looking around in confusion. "What?"

"You need to get up. You haven't showered in three days."

I struggled to meet his eyes. "So? You go months without showering."

"In my armor."

His armor apparently had a function to keep him clean. I still thought it was weird that he had gone literal years without showering, but whatever.

"Come on." He set me on the ground. "Let's go."

I just stood there. I didn't want to move.

If I was small, and still, the Covenant wouldn't be able to find me. I couldn't bring myself to move.

John knelt in front of me. "Tawny."

I stared at his chest.

"Talk to me."

My eyes were unfocused.

I had no idea why I was being so paranoid. I bit my lip and tried to form words.

John sighed through his nose. I still didn't move as he picked me up, carrying me through the halls. I hadn't left his room in days.

We were in the showers. It was the middle of the day, so they were empty.

John once again set me down, right in front of a stall. "You need to shower."

I stepped robotically into the stall and peeled my clothes off. I set the water as hot as it would go, standing under the steamy flow. My eyes were staring at the far wall, seeing things from the past.

I couldn't feel anything myself, but I could still feel other peoples' emotions. John was worried and agitated at my condition.

I didn't want him to be upset.

So I forced myself to wash up. It took several minutes to feel truly clean, especially my hair. It had been oily and thick from days without washing.

I turned the water off when I was completely rinsed off. There wasn't a towel in the stall.

I stepped reluctantly out.

John was still standing just outside the shower, his arms crossed. When he saw me he held out a towel he'd had in his hand.

I took it, drying my hair off before I wrapped it around my body. In truth, I did feel better after bathing.

I grabbed an extra outfit in my size. There were always a few surplus clothes, usually black sweats, and they were left out in the showers for whoever wanted them.

John put an arm around my shoulders. "Let's get some food."

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking; I really was hungry.

The thought of food made my stomach turn, for some reason, but I forced the queasiness down. I would eat for John.

He was worried about me. I didn't want him to worry.

The mess hall was absolutely full when we walked in. I kept my gaze on the floor, walking numbly through the crowd.

I could feel John's eyes on me.

I grabbed a plate, they were serving lo mein, and followed John to a table. There were some marines on the other end, but we were well away from them.

I could pick up bits and pieces of other conversations. Some techies complaining about a problem on the servers. A mechanic talking about a drone he was disassembling at home. A few soldiers recalling a scrap with some Covies.

John was staring at me.

"Hmm?" I looked up at him.

His eyes dropped pointedly to my tray. I hadn't touched it.

I glanced from his eyes to the food. I really didn't want to eat. My stomach felt tight.

But I would. For John.

I picked up the chop sticks, grabbing a small clump of noodles. It really did smell amazing.

John didn't relent until I'd swallowed a mouthful. Then he returned to his own food. His tray had a mountain of noodles, easily three or four times more than I had.

I picked at the food. Even though I was hungry now, my stomach had shrunk. I couldn't eat any more than a few mouthfuls.

I sat there, staring down at the table, until John finished.

After he returned from putting our trays away I stood.

"Can I go back to our room?" I asked quietly.

He nodded.

When I walked around the table he grabbed my hand. My heart jumped.

I tightened my grip on his hand.

When we were back in the room he picked me up, setting me on the bed. That was when I knew he wanted to have a serious conversation, face-to-face.

I looked up at him. There were tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

"What's wrong?" John's voice was hard.

He'd been trying to talk to me for days, but I couldn't seem to articulate the serrated knife that dug into my soul every time I remembered my month in the Covenant's jaws.

I would have to try; John was genuinely worried.

"I-I...I don't," I took a breath, "I don't know."

"Is it the Elite?"

Something in my chest twisted when he mentioned the Covenant soldier. It must have shown on my face. I know it did; the tears wobbled in an attempt to leak down my face.

"He can't get out," John assured me.

I stared down at his chest, lacking the energy to lift my eyes any higher, and desolately asked, "How do you know?"

"I won't let anything hurt you."

I wanted so badly to be comforted by those words. In some selfish way, I was.

My eyes met his. "What if they hurt _you_?"

"They won't."

My chest heaved. "They might. God knows they're trying. You're _the_ Demon. Did you know that, John?"

He didn't respond.

The tears leaked out onto my cheeks. "They know more about you than any other SPARTAN. You're one of the biggest threats to them, an-and-and they know that."

He didn't say anything. His hands were on my left shoulder and my right arm. My left arm was still wrapped heavily and in a sling, so he didn't touch it.

"They want to take you out, John," I whimpered. "They're scared of you, and that means they're going to try even harder to _kill_ you."

I bit down hard on my lip, blinking tears away.

"I can't let that happen-" my voice broke. "I can't let them hurt anyone else."

John's hand had come up, cupping my chin and wiping at a stray tear.

"I'm so scared. I can't- I couldn't do anything."

I brought my right hand up, staring at the thick scars across the palm. Tears rushed, thick and warm, down my face.

"I couldn't save myself, how am I supposed to save anyone else?"

John didn't respond for awhile. He just wrapped his hand around mine, hiding the thick scars from my sight.

Then he looked up at me with determined eyes.

"You said you won. That you didn't crack, in the brig." He lifted my chin. "You were wrong."

I looked up at him through a haze of tears. "W-what?"

"You didn't give them any information, but you let them take your strength. They won."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Did anyone order ANGST?**

**Sorry guys but I really want to have a huge fallout because of her month of imprisonment because that'll fuck someone up. So here it is - fallout!**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 1/1/2020)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty One**

John's words hit me like a physical punch. I blinked heavily. Tears stung my eyes.

"I-" My chest was heaving. I looked down.

Was he right?

"No. No, they didn't win." I was desperately trying to reassure myself. "_I_ won. I got out."

"You can't fight them like this. They did win."

"No." My face crumpled. "No. They can't win."

John lifted my chin so that my eyes met his. "Then fight. If you give up, they win."

"I _can't_, John. I'm so s- I'm so scared."

"Being scared has nothing to do with it. Either you let them beat you down or you help stop them."

I felt his words lodge in my heart.

He was right. I'd never even thought of it that way; the Covenant didn't have to take away my powers if I never used them.

My hand came up, wiping the tears away. More came to replace them almost immediately.

I looked up at him. "You're...you're right. I-I won't let them win."

His thumb ran along my jaw. "Then we might stand a chance."

Newfound determination, fueled by personal wrath and a longing to protect the people I cared about, filled my body. I steadied my breathing, wiping my tears away one last time. I was strong, dammit, and I would _not_ let the Covenant win.

Even if the idea of facing them sent cold terror rushing through my heart.

**oOOOo**

It was loud on the tarmac. The constant roar of engines and personnel was somewhat comforting. My dad had been a mechanic at Elysium's spaceport, and my favorite thing was to visit him.

The traffic was a little different here, with _significantly_ fewer passenger vessels and several combat vehicles, but it was very similar. Similar enough to bolster a wave of nostalgia in me.

I was sitting on a short concrete wall that divided the sidewalk from the tarmac. The building behind me provided adequate shade that stretched out for several hundred feet before me.

To my right, there was a man in blue coveralls up on a ladder. He was leaning over the wing of a Condor, a massive version of the Pelican, and he seemed a bit agitated.

As I watched, a large ring slipped off of the wing. I reached out and surrounded it with ultrasonic waves.

Now that I was using my powers, the fear had calmed down. I didn't get nervous at the thought of using them anymore. I was too mad at the Covenant to be scared.

Okay, I was a little scared.

But I was also very, very mad. And determined to feel better.

I drew the ring to me, grabbing it in my hand, and floated up next to the man. "Here, this fell."

He glanced at me, his eyes widening for a moment. Then they flicked down to the ring in my hand. "Oh. Thank you."

I settled on the massive wing, looking over his work. He'd taken the cover off of the top of the engine, and I could see a small, valve-filled chamber.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm trying to fix the combustion chamber. It's not working properly, but I can't figure out where the leak is."

The engines in Pelicans, and various other ships like the Condor, had two main chambers; the compression chamber - a hyperfan - and the combustion chamber - a fusion-powered thruster. The fusion chamber was only important during space flight, but it was often used within the atmosphere as well.

It was a sealed container, where the ignition was made in vacuums like outer space. Outside of a planet's atmosphere, the fusion chamber was where all of the thrust came from since there was no air for the hyperfan to compress.

If there was a leak in the fusion chamber, that was a very big deal.

I leaned over, peering into the chamber. "Is it leaking out into the air or into the compression chamber?"

"I'm not sure yet. I've been trying to figure that out."

I was confused by what I saw. Diagrams were one thing, but seeing a real engine was still a bit confusing.

But I knew plenty of theory on the matter.

"Is it the injectors?" I suggested.

He shook his head. "That was the first thing I looked at."

I hummed. "How was it acting before it was brought in?"

"The crew said it only gave out thrust in spurts, until they entered the atmosphere and started using the compression chamber." He started reassembling a hose, using the ring that had fallen.

"That sounds like-"

"Like it's leaking into the compression chamber. I was hoping it wasn't."

I looked down at the engine. "Yeah. Taking this whole thing apart doesn't sound fun."

"It doesn't, no. But I do have to fix this problem." He looked up at me as if seeing me for the first time. "What did you say your name was?"

"Oh, I'm Tawny."

"It's nice to meet you, Tawny." He held his hand out. "I'm Ikeno Korir."

His grip was firm and calloused. I smiled; he reminded me a bit of my father. They looked nothing alike; my father was shortish and pale and Ikeno was tall and dark, but their mannerisms were very similar.

He was also very astute. I saw something in his expression shift when he felt the scars on my palm.

Still, he said nothing. He just returned to his work.

I glanced down at my hand; three thick lines, still pink, across my palm. They'd hurt when the Shipmaster had drawn them, and it had been agony when they were lashed with electricity.

I wasn't there anymore.

I shook myself. "S-so, Ikeno, how long have you been a mechanic?"

He leaned down, into the fusion chamber. "Thirty years, now? I've been working with spacecraft all my life."

I felt my finger twitch; I wanted to help him work on the Condor. But I couldn't be of much help. My left arm was still pinned to my body by a sling.

"How about you?" Ikeno grunted and reached for something. "You seem to know your way around a Condor."

"Oh, I haven't worked on anything f-from this century." I shrugged a shoulder. "M-my dad and I used to collect old planes. From the 2300's. We _were_ going to open a mechanic shop together, but…"

He glanced up at me with wise eyes. "Things rarely go as planned."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to learn that."

**oOOOo**

I walked out of the bathroom, sitting on the bed. In the thirty minutes it had taken me to change my stoma - I still couldn't really use my left arm - John had come in and was working on the holopad.

He was tense.

I pulled out my comm, scrolling through the news feed.

The Covenant attacks had gone down. No planets had been attacked since Reach and her sister planets.

This was cause for celebration for the general public. The UNSC hadn't disclosed the steady Covenant presence on Earth. It was a _very_ well-kept secret, hence the constant use of SPARTANs to contain them.

Both were well-kept secrets, really. Most of humanity didn't know that the Covenant was literally hiding out on our home planet, and they also didn't know much about the SPARTANs - what they did know was that they had fancy, expensive armor.

But John wasn't upset about the Covenant. They were a threat, and he was very aware of them, but this was something more personal than that.

I pushed myself up, running a hand over his head. He'd just gotten his head shaved again, so the buzz cut had that interesting, indescribable texture that would only last for a week or so. His neural implant glinted in the low light of the room.

It disappeared from view as he turned to look at me. We were around the same height when he was in a chair, though he was perhaps a few inches taller.

I kissed his forehead. "What's wrong?"

"Who says something's wrong?"

My fingers ran over his hair, running along the side of his face. "You're tense."

His left hand came up to press against my back, pulling me closer to him.

"You don't have to tell me, but you can if you want to."

"Talking won't fix it."

"No," I straddled his waist at his behest, "but it could help you feel better."

He swallowed.

How messed up we both were. He had a lifetime of trauma - it was amazing he could function at all like a normal person - and I was still recovering, both mentally and physically, from being kidnapped by humanity's worst enemy.

I laughed softly. "We're a mess."

John looked down at me, an inquisitive look in his eyes.

"We're supposed to save the galaxy, but we can barely keep ourselves together."

John took a deep breath, resting his chin on my head. He wasn't talking much; that was a bad sign. Sometimes, when he'd had a nightmare or returned from a particularly costly mission, he would barely speak for days. Weeks.

I decided to take a gamble. "Is...is it Sam?"

His heart twisted painfully; it was.

"You spoke to him. He's okay now."

John looked over my head at the wall. "Talking to him...it…"

He just shook his head.

I felt what he couldn't say. "It made it feel worse."

He nodded.

"Why?"

He thought for a few minutes. I stayed there, my head against his throat, feeling his emotions fluctuate.

He swallowed again. "He looked just like he did when it happened."

Echoes could usually choose to age or not, or even to start aging backwards if they wished, but that had all stopped when the Domain got mostly destroyed during the firing of the Halo Arrays. Whatever age you were upon your death, that's what you were stuck as.

So Sam was still fourteen years old, hauntingly unchanged.

I ran my fingers over the back of John's head. "I know."

He didn't say anything. He just sat there, staring at the wall, his arms around my back. His anguish was tangible.

I tried to pull back and look at him. His arms were locked firmly around me, though, and I couldn't. He was too trapped in his grief to notice my efforts. He was so strong, he wasn't even trying to keep me still.

My arms shook as I pushed against his chest. "John."

He blinked, letting me go. I kept my hands on his chest and looked up into his eyes.

"You're dwelling," I told him.

"What do you mean?"

"You're struggling to let it go." I felt my eyes sting, but no tears welled up. "It's okay to grieve, but sometimes it becomes all you do."

His mouth twitched.

"I-I mean, not you specifically. But you _are_ starting to let it take you over. I get it, but it's not good for you."

"How do you fix it?"

I shrugged a shoulder. "Usually a good distraction."

An idea struck me. A grin rose to my lips as my eyes widened.

"We should go out to the city."

"What?"

"New Mombasa! It's close enough to the base that you can go, right?"

He nodded.

"Do you want to go?"

I was trying to remain impartial; I didn't want him to say yes solely on my account. But I still found myself wriggling a bit in excitement.

He just looked at me for awhile. I bit my lip, trying to keep the grin off of my face.

"After my shift tomorrow," he decided.

"Deal!" Excitement blossomed in my heart. I'd never really been out with John.

I was looking forward to it.

From what I was feeling, so was he. At least a little bit.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: Trauma, trauma, everywhere.**

**But I feel bad for making them so sad, so I'll try to do something more upbeat for a bit.**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/28/2020)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty Two**

I was standing below the wing of the Condor. It was a different Condor; Ikeno had fixed the other one two days ago. It had been leaking out into the compression chamber through a small hole between the plates.

This one had a burned-out FTL drive. Ikeno was a few feet away from me, rolled up underneath the plane to work on the drive without removing it.

He grunted as he pulled out a blackened part. "I'm starting to think this thing needs to be replaced completely."

"How many jumps did they make with it?"

Condors couldn't make very many jumps before their FTL drives had to be completely scrapped and a new one installed.

"Only one." Ikeno shifted to better reach something.

"Really?"

He cursed as his wrench slipped off of the part he was trying to uninstall. "_Mafi_! Yeah, only once. There must have been something wrong with it before the jump."

"Wouldn't someone catch that?" I tugged on the brace over my right arm; my elbow was acting up again.

"They should have!" he exclaimed. "I need to find out who signed off on it."

Something beneath the wing clanged. I looked over my shoulder. John was there, his fist against the fuselage of the aircraft.

"What was that?"

A grin spread over my face. "Don't worry, Ikeno, it's John. I have to go!"

"See you later."

I pushed myself up, walking along the side of the aircraft. John was there, in a long-sleeved white compression shirt and black sweats.

I forced my eyes away from his powerful body and up to his eyes. "You ready?"

He nodded.

I grabbed his hand. "I'm glad you're coming."

"Where are we going?"

"O-oh, I don't know. I figured we could just walk around. If you see someplace you want to go, we'll do that."

We walked through the main building and out onto the sidewalk. The breeze ruffled the bottom of my oversized crop top.

It was very wide, but it was barely long enough to touch my belly button. With my left arm still pinned against me by the sling, I could reach my fingers down and touch my skin.

But moving my fingers was still hard, and today was one of those days, so I didn't.

"I ordered a taxi, so it-it should be here soon," I said.

Sure enough, it rolled around to us. The driver rolled down the passenger window. "You Tawny?"

I nodded, climbing into the backseat. John was a bit cramped beside me, his knees almost up to his chest.

"Where to?" The driver leaned back to face us.

"City center, please."

Reconstruction in New Mombasa was going fairly quickly. Scars from the battle were still visible, but pretty much everything was back up and running. I could only be grateful that the attack was a fairly weak one.

We pulled into the city and the driver let us out.

I climbed out next to John. He was glancing around uncertainly. He was confused; how was he supposed to process this?

There was no danger, and the civilians walked around with no sense of order. Some of them weren't even walking on the right side of whatever walk they were on.

Few of them were looking around as they walked; quite a few were scrolling their comms even as they moved.

He'd never seen anything like this. It wasn't the chaotic order of a battle - there was _no_ order to it at all. Some people walked quickly, some slowly. There was no cohesion.

I took his hand, offering silent support. "Where do you want to go?"

He glanced around. His mind was flooding him with information; potential threats and vantage points. Vehicles to hijack in an emergency. Places to hide in and places to escape into.

Eventually, he looked up at the web of pedestrian bridges. "What's up there?"

"Let's go find out."

He walked next to me as we made our way towards a staircase.

His eyes flashed over a roadway that we'd fought on during the battle. I knew he was seeing ghosts.

I saw them, too.

We lost three men there. The memories of their deaths were in stark contrast with the bright and jovial crowd standing atop their deathbeds.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

We made our way up several stories. Along the wall was a stand selling bowls of mahamri, sweet rolls of bread that resembled donut holes.

They looked really good.

John followed my gaze. "What are those?"

"Mahamri," I said. "It's a kind of fried bread, it's really good."

"Do you want to get some?"

I grinned. "You're gonna love it."

I walked up to the stand as John moved to stand beside the wall a few feet away.

A woman with elaborate, multi-colored braids smiled at me. "What can I do for you today?"

"C-could I have two bowls of mahamri, please?" I drummed the fingers of my right hand on the countertop.

"Of course. That's gonna be seven and a half credits."

I held out my comm, letting the transaction take place between the price scanner and the comm.

"Have a good day." She handed me the small bowls.

I took them in my right hand and smiled at her. "Thank you!"

John was waiting by a corner when I walked up. His eyes were scanning the crowd, constantly assessing for threats.

"Dig in." I handed him a bowl.

We just stood there for awhile, looking out over the city. We were right next to a bridge, which afforded us a view down to the ground. It was several hundred feet below us, the people looking like tiny bugs milling about.

Did we look like that to the people above us?

I savored the mahamri. They were sweet, but not sickeningly so. There was a distinct taste of coconut milk, which bolstered the subtle sugary flavor.

I glanced up at John. He was enjoying the mahamri, but he gave no outward indication that he was. Even as he ate, his eyes were scanning the crowds. Never safe.

His whole life had taught him that he was always in danger, or he always could be. There was always a threat, somewhere, looking for him.

My heart ached for him.

**oOOOo**

I shuffled into the room, running a hand through my now-wet hair. I'd lost track of time in the rec room and ended up showering incredibly late.

John was already asleep. He'd be up in a few hours.

I dragged my feet across the floor, climbing onto the bed.

I climbed over his sleeping form, settling in my usual spot between him and the wall. My head was rested on his chest, along with my right arm.

His left arm came up, resting against the side of my head.

"What time is it?" His voice was a sleepy rumble.

I hummed. "Sometime after midnight."

He didn't say anything. I felt him drift back into a light slumber.

My eyes closed, and I felt myself falling deeper into unconsciousness.

Suddenly I was awake. I looked around, a bit discombobulated, and saw the massive hallways of the Domain.

"How many times are you going to do this?" I wondered aloud, hoping the Domain would for once answer me directly.

But, as usual, no such thing happened.

I sighed, feeling for a pulse to guide me. Nothing happened.

"Warden?" I tried.

"Tawny."

"Why am I here?" I looked up at him, feeling dwarfed.

He looked over my head. "The Domain is preparing you for the threat."

"'The threat'?" My heart jumped in my chest. "What threat?"

"The one the Librarian foretold."

My mind took a few moments to connect the pieces. "The-the Didact?"

He nodded.

"What- he's coming?"

"He is awakening. As should you."

**oOOOo**

My eyes shot open. I was in bed, but John wasn't there. He was at the desk.

I reached up to run a hand through my hair. It was...dry.

"John?"

He half-turned to face me.

"What time is it?"

"Oh-six-hundred."

My eyes widened. "Oh. I...I was in the Domain."

"What happened?" He sensed that my words meant more than they normally would.

"I don't know," I breathed. "Warden said the Didact was awakening."

His brow furrowed.

"B-but the Domain isn't warning me. Is it warning you?"

He focused for a second. "It's not."

"Well, I might as well get up. Have you had breakfast yet?"

He shook his head.

"Wanna go together?"

He nodded.

I climbed out of bed, grabbing my sling and an outfit. When I moved to pull my sling on I noticed something.

My brow furrowed and I experimentally shrugged my left shoulder. There was no pain, not even the slightest pull of flesh.

I tugged my shirt off and unwrapped the arm and shoulder. I hadn't seen the wound much. It looked almost like one of John's scars; concave and red.

It _was_ scarred over now, several months before it should have been.

A thick vertical line from my shoulder to most of the way down my arm. Where the new and the old arm met was a band of scar tissue around my arm, looking like a thick red line.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My voice was tentative. "John."

"What's wrong?"

"My arm's fixed," I exhaled.

"What?" He was out of his chair, leaning over me to see my arm.

"This...is what Warden meant. It must be." I looked back down at the scars. "The Domain healed it."

I was elated, but John wasn't. He was glad I was healed, but there was a negative undertone.

"John, what's wrong?"

"If the Domain healed you, the threat is closer than we thought."

My heart dropped. "O-oh. I didn't think about that."

I chewed on my lip. There was nothing we could do about the Didact, not at that moment. As nerve-wracking as it was to admit, we could only sit and wait.

I made a shrugging motion. "You still up for breakfast?"

His eyes wrinkled in that way they did only when he was amused. "Let's go."

I pulled on a loose pink shirt and denim shorts. "I should probably go talk to Professor Anders when we're done."

He nodded.

I reached up for his hand as we walked out into the hallway.

The mess hall was crowded, but it was more quiet than the lunch rush. Despite some of these men regularly waking up at 0530, it was still early. Muted conversations buzzed through the air as people milled about.

I grabbed a tray of pancakes. John took two, and we were off. We found Blue Team sitting at a mostly-empty table.

I settled in next to Linda, across from Kelly.

"Morning, Chief." Fred offered us a smile.

John nodded. "Morning."

Kelly glanced down at me. "You're up early."

"Yeah, I am. Oh! There's a reason for that." It was still a bit too early for my mind to fire on all cylinders.

"Does it have anything to do with why you're not wearing your sling?" Linda didn't turn to face me as she spoke. If I didn't know her voice, I wouldn't have known it was her.

I nodded. "So-so there's good news and bad news. The good news is, the Domain healed me. The bad news is that it healed me because Ur-Didact is awakening."

"Awakening from what?" Fred put his fork down.

"I don't know. The Domain didn't tell me _anything_; it was Warden."

"Well can you find out?" Kelly asked.

John seemed to agree with Kelly. "You forced the Domain to show you the Library on Installation 05. Can you do it again?"

"I can try. It-it's worth a shot, at least."

That was that. Nothing else anyone could do.

We ate in silence. I had no idea how to start a conversation, and none of the others seemed to care to talk yet. Not that I minded much; I rarely ate breakfast, so I was savoring the rich syrup and thick pancakes.

They were gone all too soon. The SPARTANs had already finished eating; I was the last one done. But they stuck around, talking to each other in low voices.

I grabbed John's empty plates. "I'm going to go talk to Anders. See you guys."

Fred nodded as I walked away.

The hallways were busy, but like the mess hall it was muted. Waking up this early was something I rarely did; it was kind of nice. It felt...fresh. Like a crisp sunrise in the cool morning air.

Which is what I _could_ have seen if I went outside. But I had places to be.

I pressed the intercom on Professor Anders' door.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Tawny."

"Come in."

The door unlocked and I shuffled in.

Anders swiveled in her chair to face me. "What is it?"

"Something happened last night. It's big. I...I didn't know who else to tell."

"You came to the right person. What happened?"

I sat in an empty chair. "I was in the Domain last night; not by choice. It didn't tell me anything. When I woke up, m-my arm...was healed."

"Healed?" She sprung up. "Let me see."

I held up my arm. The bottom of the vertical scar could be seen below my sleeve; very clearly scarred over and not a healing wound.

She pushed my sleeve up, looking over the scar. "And your strength and motor controls are entirely back?"

"As far as I know."

"Why would the Domain do this?"

I bit my lip. "That's the problem, the Warden said the Didact was awakening."

"'Awakening'?"

I nodded.

"So he's still asleep," she clarified.

"Ye-yeah, but I have no idea when or where he'll awaken. I'm not feeling any warnings in the Domain. If his return was as imminent as Warden made it sound, it would be _screaming_ at me... Wouldn't it?"

"All we can do is be ready. The UNSC wants you back on the field; do you think you're up for it?"

Fierce determination flooded my heart. "Definitely."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: How was Thanksgiving for you guys?**

**Also; PLEASE eat breakfast. Tawny is in no way, shape, or form a healthy person. And she eats extra lunch to make up for skipping breakfast. But still, you should eat breakfast if you can**

**I love you guys! :)**

**(Edited 4/28/2020)**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty Three**

"Alright, thank you for your time." The psychologist stood, shaking my hand, and walked out of the room.

I followed, branching off to the right when he went left.

I'd been doing my psychological analysis, to make sure I was mentally ready to return to the field after my capture. I was already medically cleared; my arm was completely healed.

Hopefully, everything turned out okay with the psych evaluation. I was _excited_ to go back out.

I understood why John felt so attached to his role as a soldier. The feeling that you were really doing something to help humanity...it was addictive.

Blue Team was in the gym, practicing with their armor. We were now on duty, ready to go out on the field whenever we were needed, so that Red Team could get a break.

But I wouldn't be joining them in the gym just yet. Professor Anders had asked me to meet her in the lab. She said she had something new to show me.

The door was unlocked when I walked up. It slid open for me.

"Professor?" I stepped in.

"Tawny, good. Come on, you're going to like this." She waved me hastily over.

I made my way through a maze of big machinery. "What is it?"

"A new suit." She grinned. "I have to say, I'm proud of this design. It's similar to MJOLNIR, but I've dialed back the responses so that it won't kill you."

Well that was comforting.

"And I made a few tweaks." She ran a hand over her smooth black bun. "Namely, part of the waste management system hooks up directly to your stoma."

"What?"

"Yeah, I'll need a full body scan to place it properly, but it should work."

My eyes widened as she pulled up a hologram. It was indeed a suit of armor, that looked very much like MJOLNIR, with thick armor plating and a biosuit beneath.

"Um...Professor?"

"Yeah?"

"I-I can't use that." I looked down. "I don't have a neural implant."

Anders held up her hands, a giddy smile on her face. "I know. I have another theory."

Her excitement was contagious, I had to admit. She believed so strongly in what she was doing, but she was also entirely passionate about doing it, regardless of the stakes.

She would have gone into this field, war or not. Xenobiology was her passion. Though, she did tamper in mechanics, clearly.

"I was watching the footage from Installation 04," she continued. "You were controlling an elevator. You made it take you down a few levels, remember?"

I did remember doing that. "Y-yeah, I don't know how I did it. I just...I knew I could."

"We're going to find out if you can do it again. Theoretically, you could link your mind to this armor without a neural lace."

"You really think I can do that?"

"Oh, I have no idea." She was gazing up at the armor with bright eyes. "But we're going to find out."

I nodded to myself. "Right. What's first?"

She held up a datapad. "Turn this on. Don't touch it."

**oOOOo**

I flopped down on the bed, my face in the pillow and my body limp. If John hadn't been able to see my chest moving with each breath, he would have been worried.

He turned in his chair. "Tawny?"

I mumbled something unintelligible, even to myself.

"What's wrong?" I could hear a trace of amusement in his voice.

"My brain hurts."

He didn't say anything. There was a time when he would have found my dramatics annoying, useless, but now he saw them as humorous.

"Anders made me a new suit," I explained lethargically.

"And?"

"It's basically MJOLNIR that won't kill me, since I'm unenhanced."

Shock, I think, rippled through him. "What?"

"Yeah, I know." I turned my face to the side so I could breathe. "I don't have a neural implant, so I didn't think I could use it."

I could feel his eyes on me, a silent inquiry.

"But she thinks I can use my powers to hook up to the suit."

"How?"

I sat up, leaning against the wall. "You remember how I called that elevator up on Installation 04?"

He nodded.

"She thinks I can do something like that again."

"I thought you pulled it up." His brow furrowed.

"Nope," I shook my head, "I controlled it, somehow. And she's onto something, because I was able to turn on a datapad from across the room."

John's mind was already working to incorporate this into the field. "Do you think you could access Covenant systems?"

"I don't know. It was really hard, just turning on the datapad. I'm sure it'll get easier with practice, but for now it's a no."

The intercom pinged. I shared an inquisitive glance with John.

He pushed himself up, unlocking the door. It slid open to reveal Colonel Argo.

John snapped a salute. "Sir."

"At ease, Chief. I'm here to speak with Ms. Clark, actually."

I looked between him and John, pushing myself off of the bed. "Okay. What do you need?"

He cocked his head. "Walk with me, would you, dear?"

I glanced up at John. He inclined his head towards the officer.

"Of course, Colonel." I turned back to Colonel Argo.

"Marvelous. This will be but a minute."

We made our way down the hallway. He said nothing for awhile, waiting until we were in a quieter area.

Then he spoke. "We have recently acquired a Covenant prisoner. This is rare, you understand, as most would rather commit suicide than submit to the indignity of capture."

I already knew that. We would have a lot more Covenant POWs if that wasn't the case.

"He's of a fairly high rank. We believe he knows a large amount about the Covenant battle plans. Unfortunately, he absolutely refuses to cooperate with us." The Colonel turned to me. "Would you be willing to work with him?"

My stomach turned. I didn't want to see the Sangheili, unless it was on the battlefield. And even then the sight of them wouldn't be welcome.

But, once again, I was willing to do a lot to help win this war.

"What would I have to do?" I finally asked.

"We know that you can speak their language. Perhaps he would be more willing to converse in his own tongue."

So he didn't want me to invade his mind. That was good.

I nodded slowly. "Okay... When are we doing this?"

"I am not yet sure. Perhaps...this Friday. You must have time to prepare, I understand."

How considerate.

I nodded. "That-that works for me. Is that all?"

"Indeed. I bid you good day." He walked off.

I turned and saw John at the end of the hallway. He must have followed us.

I pushed down my trepidation and walked over to him, offering him a weak smile.

"What did he want?" John asked.

I wrapped my left hand around his, still savoring the full strength of my arm after so much weakness.

My gaze was on the floor. "He wants me to talk to the Sangheili."

Protectiveness. "I'm going with you."

"Probably." I nodded. "I-I don't want to do this without you."

I shrugged.

"He just wants me to talk to him in Sangheili. I don't- I don't think I'll be going into his mind, so that's good."

John still didn't look too happy about it. About me talking to a giant beast who would probably like nothing more than to see us dead.

I wasn't happy with it, either.

**oOOOo**

I walked into the stockade. John was behind me, a strong and steady presence.

I focused on him; everything would be okay while we were together.

Besides, I'd had a few days to prepare myself for this. And I was sure I'd be okay; the roles were reversed from my time in the brig. Now, I was a prison guard and this Sangheili was a prisoner.

But thinking about it that way made me sympathize with the Sangheili. I couldn't be sympathetic; we needed information from him. I had to be firm.

"Thank you for joining us." Colonel Argo was referring to himself and the three soldiers who would be accompanying us.

"Of course." I smiled a bit. "Thanks for letting John come."

He nodded. "Yes, well, we really should be going. Come along."

We all followed him into the prison.

I'd decided to wear normal clothes. John had recommended I wear my suit, so that I could bluff better, but that wasn't what I was good at.

I did know, however, that I was the opposite of a threatening-looking person. I'd play that up, wearing a cute dress with a tight black bodice and a frilly, knee-length skirt, and hopefully this Sangheili would divulge more than he should.

We walked into the stockade.

The Colonel nodded for two of the soldiers to run ahead. "He calls himself Jul 'Mdamaee. He absolutely refuses to speak with any of us, despite his understanding of English."

I'd heard that Sangheili were stubborn. In my month on the ship, I got to feel some of that stubborn nature first hand.

If this Sangheili didn't want to talk, he wouldn't. No amount of force would loosen his tongue. It would take me invading his mind, and _forcing_ him to divulge the information.

But maybe he could be persuaded to talk.

We walked up to the cell.

My heart stopped.

Standing before me was the Shipmaster who had beaten me for so long. The Sangheili who had shattered my arm and had my ribs broken.

I stared up at him with wide eyes, my breath speeding up in acute terror. My mind was stuck between now and months ago, when he'd slowly pushed his weight down onto my arm. It had completely destroyed it.

He was the reason I had a new arm.

And he knew me. When we walked up, his eyes focused on me. His pupils narrowed and expanded with a carnivorous interest.

His voice sent thrills of horror down my spine. "**My prey has returned to me. How convenient."**

I had to _get away from him_.

I took a few steps back, shaking my head. "No. No, not you."

"**Yes, me."** He was full of sick delight.

"Tawny?" John had a hand on my shoulder. "What is it?"

I felt a tear fall down my cheek. I whimpered. "I can't do this."

I heard the Colonel protest as I turned and walked down the hallway. My arms were wrapped around my chest, my eyes on the floor.

John was following me, his footsteps thumping heavily.

The Shipmaster was here. The being that had brought me to my knees, and then even lower. He'd reduced me to nothing, to a shell, and he was _here_.

He'd been here, just a few buildings away from me.

I slowed to a halt outside the building, leaning heavily against the wall. My face was covered in tear tracks.

John was there. "Tawny."

I turned into John, pressing my face into his chest. "Oh, god."

"What's wrong?"

"He-he's the Shipmaster. He _destroyed_ my _arm. _He's the-" my voice broke.

John's arms were around me, encasing me like a shield. "I won't let him touch you."

I could feel his wrath, kept bubbling just below the surface. He wanted to keep me safe. He wanted to go in there and make the Shipmaster feel all of the pain I'd felt, and then some.

I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, though, not even him.

I just stayed there, encased in John's arms, and tried to clamp down on my sobs.

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: ANGST. Also, I'd been planning for Jul to be the guy who tortured her for ****_awhile_****. Not since the beginning, but close. It just seemed to work, ya know?**

**If you could make one major change to Halo canon, what would it be?**

**Love you guys :)**

**(Edited 4/28/2020)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty Four**

There was a low beat mumbling through my lips. Almost words, but not quite. It was a complex piece from an old opera my mom and I used to listen to.

I was sitting at the desk, sketching on my datapad.

It was a Sangheili, his jaws spread wide with a silent, animalistic roar. His clawed hands were held out on either side, prepared to rip apart his enemies. He had an energy sword that could pierce through armor and bone and flesh.

Jul 'Mdamaee was still in the stockade. It had been two days since I saw him.

I couldn't help but want some closure. Maybe...I could show him I wasn't as weak as I'd been. Let him see that he hadn't broken me. Because he certainly hadn't.

Had he?

No. I was _not_ broken. Not by him.

I'd been thinking about it for a few days. Since I saw him, really.

It had been the shock of it all that made me react so strongly. I was sure of it.

Now that I knew it was him, I'd be okay. Probably.

No, definitely.

I turned to John. "I want to talk to 'Mdamaee."

John was on the bed, polishing his helmet. When I spoke he paused. "Is that a good idea?"

"I..." I looked down at my hands, noting the thick scars on my right palm. "I don't know. But I'm going to anyways."

"I'm going with you."

I didn't protest. I'd actually been hoping he would come with me.

My legs felt wobbly as I pushed myself up. I had to do this. I could find out their plans, whether the Sangheili let me or not.

John took my hand in his as we walked out into the hallway. I was focusing on my breath. In and out, in and out.

And the anger in my heart. It was red and thick, like the heart of a fire.

If I could coax it into something bigger, into a true rage, hopefully M'damaee wouldn't stand a chance.

When we walked into the stockade I felt my stomach drop.

I shoved it down and walked up to a soldier by the reinforced door. "I'm here to talk to the Sangheili."

I must have been given clearance, because she nodded. "Right this way, ma'am."

I followed her into the bowels of the stockade. My breath tried to speed up as we grew closer to his cell.

I closed my eyes, steadying myself. I would be fine; he couldn't hurt me from inside a prison cell.

How poetic that now _he_ was the prisoner on _my_ home turf.

My breath shook as I walked up to the cell.

Jul looked down at me with a predatory gaze. "**You have returned to me."**

I struggled to keep my face still. It fought to curl my lip in rage, or crumple into a cowering sob.

I met his eyes evenly. "**Don't play tough. You're the prisoner now."**

He shifted, pacing along the bars to get closer to me. "**You speak Sangheili."**

His shock gave me strength. He was a living, breathing, feeling being just like any other.

**"What does the Covenant want on Earth?"** I asked.

"**As if I would expose our plans that easily."** He turned his nose up at the mere thought.

"**No one said you had to cooperate."**

He cocked his head. "**So you plan to use your powers. After so long, you finally reveal your strength."**

A twisted grin tugged at my lips as I felt his fear. "**And you reveal your cowardice. I didn't think the powerful **_**Shipmaster**_ **would be afraid of a little girl."**

Before he could respond I shoved myself into his mind. It was rough, jarring, and overwhelming for him. The last independent thing he felt was terror, before his mind completely halted.

_I_ was in charge.

He was at my mercy now. Helpless. I could do with him whatever I wanted. Just like he'd done to me.

I could make him hurt. I could make him scared.

I didn't like feeling like this. Dark, and hateful.

It was wrong. It was how he undoubtedly had thought when _he_ tortured _me_.

So I didn't torture him.

I forced myself to focus on what was important; their plans for Earth.

They were searching for a Forerunner artifact with coordinates to the Ark. They wanted to activate all of the Halo rings at once. They knew the artifact was somewhere in Africa.

I returned to my own mind, ignoring the Sangheili as he staggered back, and turned to John. "They're trying to find the Ark."

"How?"

I turned to glare at Jul. "They think there's a Forerunner artifact that can tell them where it is."

"We have to find it."

I nodded. "Let's go."

The Shipmaster snarled as we walked away.

When we were out of the stockade, walking through the sun, I sagged into John. "That was terrifying."

"He can't hurt you."

"I-I know. That's...that's not what scared me."

He glanced down at me. In his armor, every move was intentional, and that one was imploring me to continue.

"I...I _wanted_ to hurt him."

"He tortured you."

"But, John, bad things happen when I get mad. I destroyed an entire ring world!"

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "It got rid of the Flood."

"I didn't mean to destroy the ring world." I fought to help him understand. "I _wanted_ to take the Index back. I'm not scared of my own judgement, John, I'm scared that I'll lose control again. I destroyed Installation 04 on _accident_."

He didn't say anything. His hold on my shoulder became fractionally tighter.

I bit my lip. "I don't want this."

"You don't have a choice."

That sent a flurry of dread through my body. My heart skipped a few beats.

I shoved my fear down. He was right, I didn't have a choice. These powers seemed to be permanent.

I would have to curb my temper.

My eyes closed as I took a breath. "Yeah, I don't. But I can help stop the Covenant. The Domain, it can show us where the artifact is."

John paused as we reached another building. "You go. I'll report to the Colonel."

I caught his hand as he moved to walk away. "John, I might need your help."

"I'll join you when I'm done."

"Got it." I nodded.

I turned back to the barracks with a heavy sigh, setting my shoulders.

It was dim in John's room. It usually was, since neither of us cared to turn the lights on. He didn't need the light, and I liked the dim atmosphere.

I settled onto the bed, laying down and closing my eyes. Reaching out. Feeling the familiar buzz grow stronger and louder until it engulfed me.

The Domain was as beautiful as always. Ornate beams, towering roofs, ethereal lighting.

I glanced around for a moment. "Warden?"

He was behind me.

"Hey, I'm looking for a Forerunner artifact that has the coordinates of the Ark."

"The information is within this room," he gestured to the room on the right, "but the Domain has not decided to show you."

"I need to know where it is. If not, the Covenant could find it. If they fire the Halo Array again, it will _destroy_ the Domain."

He tilted his head in thought. "Perhaps the Domain can be persuaded."

I stepped towards the room. "I hope so."

It was foggy in the room. I knew what to do from my experience on Installation 05.

The fog was difficult to push with my mind, but I managed. It wouldn't show me what was inside unless I could corral all of the fog into a tight ball.

Which was harder than it sounded. Wisps of smoke slid through my control, spreading back out over the room.

I reined a few tendrils in, only to feel several more escape.

My mind was trying to keep track of everything, my brow furrowed in frustrated concentration. I growled, shoving uselessly at the fog.

Someone was behind me, pushing on the fog. It couldn't escape our combined strength.

I turned my head and saw John, his own arm extended.

We gathered all of the smoke into the center of the room, where it began to change. It dispersed over the whole room, forming into a detailed topographical map. I could see New Mombasa, at the edge of the map.

There, outside the city. I couldn't see anything, but something told me the artifact was there. The location burned itself into my memory.

I looked up at John. "Do you feel it?"

He nodded.

"We should go talk to the Colonel," I whispered.

"Let's go."

My eyes opened. I was on John's lap. He was sitting up against the wall, his arms around me.

I stood up as he came back into his body. "I-I can't believe it's _right_ out of the city. How did they miss it the first time they were here?"

"I don't know. I'm just glad they did."

"Me too." I took John's hand as we walked out into the hall. "A-and they haven't been looking around here yet. After we have the artifact, we can focus on taking them out, instead of keeping them contained."

He nodded.

It was busy in the building we walked into. It served mainly as an office of sorts, with the officers performing their more official duties in here.

We walked up to the Colonel's office. I pressed the intercom.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"It's Tawny and John," I said.

"Come in."

The door opened.

He looked up at us from his desk. "That was quick. Have you found the artifact, Ms. Clark?"

I nodded. "It's actually just outside the city."

John stepped forward and provided the coordinates.

The Colonel drummed his fingers on the desk. "Got it. Thank you, Chief. Ms. Clark."

"Of course." I nodded.

"Dismissed."

John saluted. His sharp movements contrasted with mine as I walked out of the room.

The door closed behind us.

"That's it, I guess." I tucked my hands into the pockets of my dress.

John nodded.

"So, should we go tell the others?" I asked. "We're probably going to be sent out, you know."

He didn't say anything for a minute. Then, "They're on the track."

"Got it." I followed John out to the practice fields.

We walked past several soldiers, all sweaty and tired to some degree. It was full-blown summer in Kenya, and you could tell.

That was why clothes on Eridanus II were always light and breezy. It saw its fair share of humid summers, and the people who didn't spend most of their time indoors had to adapt.

John and I turned heads, as usual. In his armor especially, we looked like polar opposites. He was tall and battle-scarred and imposing. I was small and soft and looked about as threatening as a bunny rabbit. He had thick armor that could withstand unbelievable strain, and I was in a yellow and white dress that billowed around my knees in the wind.

But most of the soldiers had heard about me, and they knew I was just as lethal as John.

I released his hand, pulling my hair into a ponytail at the base of my neck. It had grown out to several inches below my shoulder now, and I wanted to get it cut soon, but that could wait. Securing the Forerunner artifact was much more important.

The SPARTANs were all running the track. I was blown away by their speed, Kelly's especially. She was so fast she was actually behind the others; she'd completed an extra lap.

They all slowed to a halt at around the same time, so John must have commed them.

We met each other beside the track.

Kelly pulled off her helmet. "What is it, John?"

John pulled his helmet off, too. "We know what the Covenant wants, and we know where it is."

"What do they want?" Linda was all business.

I looked up, glancing between them. "They're trying to find the Ark so th-they can activate the entire Halo Array. A-and the artifact with the coordinates to the Ark is right outside New Mombasa."

"You're kidding." Fred shifted his helmet from one arm to the other. "That's too easy."

"I thought so, too. But it's there, and we need to get it before the Covenant does." John's voice held yet untapped reserves of determination.

They all straightened up.

Kelly offered John a fond smile. "Just give us the word, Chief."

**oOOOo**

**Author's Note: Holy CRAP guys, next chapter is the last one! I'M SO EXCITED. I'll be posting the official timeline after the next chapter.**

**Anywho, I love you guys. Thanks for sticking around! :)**

**(Edited 4/28/2020)**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty Five**

I held my arms out in a T as Professor Anders clipped the armor onto my biosuit. It was dark blue, almost black, and looked like a cross between John's and Kelly's. The armor wasn't as thick, of course, and the entire suit was much smaller.

I'd only been practicing my technokinesis, as Anders called it, for ten days. It was enough, though. I could control the datapad fluidly from across the room, as if I was touching it.

She finished putting all of the armor on. "Does it feel okay?"

"It feels good." I swung my arms. "Weird. Like, it's really heavy. But it uses its heaviness to help make me stronger? I don't know if that makes sense."

"No, that's what I was going for. ONI gave me a few reference reports on MJOLNIR, all I had to do was dull down the reaction time and create a signal enhancer in place of the neural linkup."

She pulled out a helmet. It still had a smooth, motorcycle helmet look. But the visor was golden, with a honeycomb pattern.

"You ready?" she asked.

I nodded. "Ready."

She slid the helmet on. In the armor, I was still two inches shorter than her. She was 5'10", which I decided was _really_ tall, so of course I wouldn't quite reach her.

My height didn't matter, finding the artifact did.

"Take a few minutes to move around. Mess with your HUD a bit; you can always have it return to default, so you can't mess it up too badly."

I moved my arm up and down. "The biosuit feels like my old armor."

"It's similar," Anders confirmed. "I couldn't make it as compressive, since you're going to be wearing it for longer periods of time, but I wanted to give you a little extra support."

I hopped up and down on my toes. "I like it."

I was connected to the suit. It wasn't quite subconscious at this point, but it would be.

Someone was comming me. "Tawny, are you ready?"

It was John.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I responded.

"We're about to load up."

"Oh." I turned to Anders. "I have to go!"

"Good luck out there."

"Thanks!" I waved to her as I ran out of the room.

Moving in the armor was...strange. I moved the armor, yes, but it seemed to move me, too. It responded to my mind and moved on its own.

I would have to get used to that.

Blue Team was on the tarmac when I walked out.

I grinned when they came into view. "Hey, guys!"

"Tawny, is that you?" Fred turned to face me.

"Yeah! Do you like it?"

"It looks just like MJOLNIR," Kelly noted.

"I know!" I swung my arms, listening to the armor _clack_ as it moved. "Professor Anders said she just dialed back the reaction, since I'm not augmented, and that's about it. I-it feels pretty cool."

"You don't have a neural lace." Linda crossed her arms. "How does that work?"

"Okay, so remember when we were on Installation 04?" I walked up the ramp beside her.

"Yeah."

"When I called the elevator up, I wasn't using my telekinesis. I was _in_ the computer system that ran the elevators, or...something. I've been working with Professor Anders to get better at that stuff."

"So you're connected directly to the armor without an implant." She crossed her arms.

I nodded. "Pretty much."

John was standing beside the door to the cockpit. He looked back at us. "Ready?"

A series of affirmations from the SPARTANs.

He knocked on the door to the cockpit.

As the ramp closed I walked up to him, grabbing the handle beside his.

I looked over, comparing our heights for a moment, before looking up at him. "I'm up to your shoulder now, that's nice."

I could feel his amusement. "Give it a few years, you may reach my chin."

I made a face that he couldn't see. "Give it a few years, you may be able to implode a sun."

He huffed with good-natured indignance.

He was good with his powers, but not quite as practiced as me. I'm sure he was my equal in raw power, which meant he probably could implode a sun if he wanted to, but he didn't have as much experience as I did.

Not that any of us could do much of anything to a real sun. The sun I'd imploded on the shield world was artificial, and small.

John turned to Kelly. "Is the tracking gear online?"

"Affirmative."

"We jump in five. Call for evac as soon as the artifact is secure."

I was eager to protect the artifact, but I was also nervous to be back on the field.

I opened a private comm to John. "What do we do if the Covenant shows up?"

"We take them out."

He walked to the rear of the Pelican, standing by the ramp controls.

"Ready to move?" he asked us.

I nodded.

Linda slid a rifle as tall as me onto her back. "Ready, Chief."

He slammed his fist on the button, and the ramp lowered.

Linda was the first one out, free-falling from just below the clouds. Kelly and Fred jumped at the same time, spreading their arms to slow their descent.

John jerked his head. "Ladies first."

"What a gentleman." I shoved my nerves down and threw myself out into the air.

I could use my powers to catch myself. They could survive a fall from this height, as long as they landed right. And if any of us had problems, the suits had booster packs.

So everything would be _fine_.

It really was an inexplicable feeling, falling through the air like that. The wind roared past my helmet. I could see the other members of Blue Team below me, weaving back and forth in the wind. A quick glance up, over my shoulder, revealed John above me.

"Blue Team, sound off," John said.

"Kelly here."

"Linda online."

"Fred here, Chief."

"Tawny here."

We reached the treeline. I surrounded myself with ultrasonic waves, bobbing around the branches and slowing my descent. The SPARTANs kicked themselves away from the obstacles, or shoved off of them with their arms.

They each landed with an Earth-shaking _boom_. I held my hands out, dispersing the ultrasonic bubble beneath me and sending it out below me. It rippled over the ground, stirring up leaves and halting me completely.

I landed lightly beside Fred, immediately reaching out with my mind for any threats.

There was nothing nearby other than wildlife, thank goodness.

John marked the target's location on our HUDs. "Move out, Blue Team."

We made our way through the thick forest. I could _feel_ the artifact ahead of us.

The comms crackled.

"Did you guys hear that?" I whispered.

Linda had her gun out, pointing it around us. "I heard it."

"You are, all of you, vermin."

I felt my heart stop at the unfamiliar voice.

John turned to us. "Kelly, locate it."

"I'm on it."

The voice continued. "Cowering in the dirt, thinking what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? _No_. Your world will _burn_ until its surface is but glass. And not even your Demons will live to creep, blackened, out of its hole to marr the reflection of our passage. The _culmination_ of our journey."

Kelly piped up. "It's broadcasting on several frequencies, both public and military. Originating from above the atmosphere."

"Covenant ship?" Fred sounded tense.

"Must be," Kelly agreed.

"For your destruction is the will of the gods. And I? I am their instrument!"

Linda was walking backwards, her rifle aimed behind us as we moved. "Definitely Covenant."

"We have to secure the artifact," John ordered. "Double time, Blue Team."

Linda turned to face the front, running alongside them. They were sprinting in earnest; I had no chance of keeping up with them on foot.

I lifted up into the air, flying alongside them.

Something was wrong; the Domain was warning me. There was someone else at the artifact.

"Guys." I moved in front of them, flying backwards. "They found the artifact."

"How many?" John asked.

I landed in front of him and reached out. Hundreds of Sangheili, each with command of several hundred subordinates.

My heart fell. "Too many for us."

"I'm picking up a distress signal from a nearby base." Kelly pinned the beacon on our HUDs.

John paused for a moment. I knew the Domain was feeding him knowledge; an entire Covenant fleet was above the Artifact.

He turned in the direction of the base. "New mission; we're helping that base. We can gather forces there and take the artifact."

Kelly continued relaying the distress beacon as we ran through the forest. "They have wounded. We should hurry."

**oOOOo**

We burst out of the trees where the beacon was. There, in the ground, was a hidden base.

Not so hidden, it would seem. Sangheili, Brutes, Unggoy, Kig-Yar, and Drones were inside. They hadn't seen us yet.

"Chief, is that you?" It was Sergeant Johnson on a secure line.

"Affirmative, Sergeant. Put us to work."

"We've got Pelicans with wounded holed up in that hangar. They can't get out with those Covies blocking their way."

John peered down into the hangar, which looked like a giant cube cut out of the ground. "Roger that."

There were at least twenty Sangheili and Brutes shooting at marines down there. John leapt down into the fray without hesitation, landing atop a Covenant Phantom. Fred followed suit, plunging one of his knives into an Unggoy's neck.

Kelly nudged Linda's shoulder before she hopped down.

Linda turned to me. "Help me take them from up here."

"Got it." I reached out and threw a Kig-Yar off of the Phantom, just before he shot Kelly.

I steadied myself and surrounded the Phantom farthest from us. When it was under my control I heaved it up and out of the hangar. I crushed it into the ground, making sure everything inside had perished.

The second Phantom landed heavily inside the hangar. Its pilot had been taken out by a member of Blue Team; Fred was the only SPARTAN II couldn't see, so it must have been him.

He jumped out of the Phantom. "The hangar's secure. Why don't you two join us down here?"

Linda jumped down, landing heavily beside John. I flew down, letting myself drop the last few feet. The ground shook a little when I landed; I was almost four hundred pounds inside the armor.

"Blue Team, Ops Center. Double time!" The Sergeant sounded tense.

I heard a Pelican, loaded with wounded soldiers, take off behind us. John led the way through the base, strewn with bodies of aliens and humans.

Several hallways later, in a room full of battle-worn marines, I paused. "There's something in the vents."

The SPARTANs immediately focused their weapons on the ventilation system. The marines, upon seeing the SPARTANs jump into battle positions, followed their aim.

Drones poured out of the vents, opening fire on the soldiers. A marine fell to the ground, her body riddled with plasma burns. Another clutched his leg and let out an agonized scream.

Despite the accuracy of the soldiers firing on them, there were _so many_ Drones. We'd lose a lot more men at this rate.

I snarled, diving into the Drones' minds.

All of them at once.

I hadn't done that in awhile, it was more taxing than I remembered.

My body went limp, but inside the suit all that meant was that I didn't move. It would just look like I was standing still, when I was in fact almost entirely unconscious of my own body.

The Drones hit the ground as I forced them all to be completely still. One jerk and I killed all of them. All seventeen. I felt their last moments.

My mind fell back into my body and I staggered backwards.

"Alright, they're dead." I forced myself to set my personal revulsion aside. "Let's go."

John nodded for us to follow him into the control room. An African woman was on the screen, just finishing up a conversation. "I'll see you on the last Pelican out."

The screen went black.

Sergeant Johnson, who'd been talking to her, turned to face us. "Follow me, Blue Team."

We ran after him, even deeper into the massive underground base. It was much easier to keep up with him, especially with my armor doing most of the physical work for me.

He led us to a sealed blast door. Marines were outside it, waiting for orders. Their guns were up and their minds tense.

"Covies have taken the barracks. Marines are trapped inside. Those aliens ain't much for mercy, Chief." Johnson looked down at me with a meaningful expression. "We all know what they do to prisoners."

A knot formed in my gut.

I forced it down, instead focusing on my desire to help the marines avoid the fate I'd suffered in the bowels of the Covenant ship for that awful month.

I looked up at the Sergeant. My voice was level, cold. "Let's get them out of there."

He nodded us towards the door. "Get to the barracks! Save those men, then escort them to the landing pad for evac."

We made our way through the door and down several flights of stairs.

Another door.

A big, open room full of Covies.

I snarled, sending out a massive pulse that killed, or at the very least destabilized, everything it touched. Kelly mowed through a line of disoriented Unggoy.

We left a trail of blood, none of it red, as we stormed towards the barracks.

I picked a Brute up, sending him flying into the jagged edge of a crate that he and his soldiers had probably broken. It stuck out through his chest like an oversized arrowhead.

I couldn't find it in myself to feel bad for him. Or for any of them. None of them felt bad for me, after all.

We were in the barracks. I wouldn't have known, they looked just like every other room we'd walked through, but a human soldier went flying across the room from around the corner.

He died instantly, his body breaking against the wall.

He'd been thrown by a Brute.

I turned the corner, seeing the Brute and a Sangheili. The Sangheili was lifting another soldier high into the air by his throat.

Wrath and rage made my lip curl as I killed the Sangheili instantaneously with my mind. The soldier grunted in discomfort as he hit the ground, but he was alive.

The Brute didn't have any humans in his grasp, though. I picked him up, crushing his throat with a clench of my fist. Cold, dark rage was all that I felt.

When he didn't die immediately, John took aim and shot him through the head.

I dropped the body, feeling the ground tremor when it landed.

We made our way across the room, and I toed the dead Brute's body. "I will _not_ let them hurt any of the marines."

To our left, in another large room, were even more Covies, and even more injured marines. I forced myself to tune out the bodies.

Except for the Covenant bodies. I added significantly to those.

The SPARTANs blasted through them with their guns, which seemed to me the more satisfying way to kill an alien.

I was throwing them around, hard and fast enough to ensure that whoever was within my clutches died. Their bodies broke against walls and walkways, floors and ceilings.

The marines who weren't seriously injured had taken up weapons and fired on their captors, helping our efforts tremendously.

I saw one Sangheili who looked similar to the prison guard. I knew, deep down inside my mind, that it wasn't him. But the memories that his likeness evoked placed a seed of nauseous fear in my stomach.

I turned it into fierce rage, and used my powers to crush the Sangheili's body.

The selfish anger that caused his death gave me pause. I faltered, even, in my rampage.

I'd killed him for such a horrible reason. I killed him because I was mad at someone he looked like.

It felt like two seconds that I stood there, but it must have at least been two minutes. Every single Covenant soldier was dead by the time I snapped out of it.

Linda paused in front of me. "You good?"

My eyes wouldn't focus.

"Tawny."

I shook myself. "Yeah, I'm okay."

But I didn't sound very sure.

Linda said nothing, drawing two fingers across my helmet in the shape of a smile. A SPARTAN smile.

A sense of honor, and unworthiness, filled me. SPARTANs never shared their signals with outsiders. For Linda, the most apathetic towards me, to share with me a SPARTAN smile…

A new sense of duty filled me.

We were in this together, and I had people depending on me just as I depended on them.

I returned the smile, drawing my fingers over where her mouth was. It was awkward to stretch to her height, but the meaningful gesture wasn't lost on her.

We followed the others out into another large room. Every room in this damn base looked like every single other room. I couldn't get a sense of direction for the life of me.

Fred could, though. "There's an elevator ahead that can get us close to the landing pad."

"Let's move." John led the way towards the elevator.

As we moved up I felt something massive ripple through the Domain. John tensed, almost imperceptibly, beside me.

I staggered back, shaking my head. "We got it all wrong."

"Tawny?" Kelly grabbed my shoulder. "What is it?"

"The artifact, it was never something we could _secure_. It's massive. They've been there, unearthing it for months."

"What about all the patrols we stopped?" Fred looked down at me.

"Distractions. They-they wanted to throw us off the scent so they could-"

Another ripple. I gasped, looking up into the distance. Towards the now-active artifact.

"What just happened?" A marine was looking at me with a wary expression.

"They activated a slipspace portal." John's grip on his rifle tightened. "They've found the Ark."

**oOOOOo**

**Author's Note: THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK OMG**

**Sorry if it's not that much of a cliffhanger, or a very satisfying ending. I promise, you guys are gonna love what I've got planned. This coming book is definitely my favorite that I've written so far.**

**Once again, I love all of you so, so much for reading :)**

**(Edited 4/28/2020)**


	26. Official Timeline

Lost Timeline

**2531**

* Tawny undergoes surgery to remove the tracking chip planted by the Covenant (May 17)

* Tawny enters the Domain and encounters Ur-Didact and the Librarian (May 17)

* A battle ensues to keep the Covenant off of the surface of Reach (May 17)

* It is revealed that the Covenant has been on Reach, looking for Forerunner artifacts beneath SWORD Base (May 17)

* Covenant Corvettes attack SWORD Base, and are fended off by anti aircraft emplacements activated by Blue and Red Teams (May 17)

* The space battle is lost and the Covenant rapidly deploys more ground troops (May 18)

* Most personnel from the SWORD Base are evacuated to New Alexandria (May 19)

* Tawny meets the Warden Eternal in the Domain (May 19)

* All civilians are evacuated from the planet while the military holds off the Covenant from SWORD Base (May 20)

* SWORD Base is evacuated, both military and remaining civilian presence, and is destroyed to keep the Covenant from the Forerunner artifacts inside (May 20)

* Reach is partially glassed by the Covenant (May 20-22)

* Tawny and Blue Team are transferred to the _Euclid's Anvil_ (May 21)

* The Covenant, using stolen info from SWORD Base, sets their sights on Earth, with the UNSC in close pursuit (May 22)

* Linda receives medical treatment (May 22)

* Tawny discovers, through the Domain, that she can teleport (May 24)

* Tawny accidentally teleports to Earth's Huveane University of Military Science (May 24)

* The Librarian activates John's powers (May 31)

* The Covenant attacks Earth (June 13)

* The UNSC _Euclid's Anvil_ follows the Prophet of Regret's ship to Installation 05 (June 13)

* UNSC and Covenant forces clash on Installation 05 (June 15)

* John kills the Prophet of Regret (June 15)

* Tawny is captured by the Covenant (June 15)

* The Flood kills the Prophet of Mercy (June 15)

* The Halo Array is put on standby mode (June 15)

* The Arbiter is tried and given his title (June 24)

* Tawny turns nineteen (July 11)

* The Covenant tries to force Tawny to use her powers so that they can determine how she uses them and find a way to lock them down (June 17-July 20)

* Tawny teleports to Earth to escape from the Covenant (July 20)

* Tawny is released from the medical ward (July 26)

* The casts are taken off (August 23)

* Tawny's new arm is attached (August 29)

* Tawny and John meet Sam in the Domain (August 29)

* John begins training to enter the Domain at will (September 5)

* Tawny begins facing her trauma (September 10)

* John convinces Tawny to start using her powers again (September 10)

* Tawny starts talking with Ikeno Korir, a mechanic on base (September 11)

* John briefly considers seeing a psychologist (September 16)

* The Domain heals Tawny to prepare her for the upcoming battle (September 19)

* Tawny is medically cleared (September 21)

* Professor Anders and Tawny start training her technokinesis (September 23)

* Tawny is cleared to return to the field after a psychological evaluation (September 24)

* Jul 'Mdamaee is interrogated by Tawny (September 28)

* John and Tawny locate the Forerunner artifact (September 30)

* Blue Team goes to secure the Forerunner artifact (October 2)

* The Covenant activates the artifact before Blue Team can secure it (October 2)

**oOOOo**

**It's been a trip guys! OMG! See ya next week with Chapter One of the next book!**


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